As one of the founders of Vankulture, the largest vanning club in America, I’ll share some insight from the last generation Sienna. To make a long story short Toyota was pretty amazed people were fine paying 40-50k for a van. They were more shocked people were fine adding another 5-20k in modifications. It’s a whole sector of people. A luxury van today might make a ton more sense than 20 years ago.

Vans today are 60-70k.

 

My parents have been empty nesters for well over a decade at this point, and you'd have to pry my dad's minivan from his cold dead fingers. He LOVES his as a utility vehicle. His truck sits unused while his minivan is constantly hauling things. The sliding doors, stow and go seats, and the sheer cargo volume inside make it ideal for his daily use.

 

And they are low, allows very easy loading

 

Yes I would love a luxury minivan myself. More space to manspread in comfort without needing the size of a Sequoia. My GX is borderline manspreadable. The drivers seat in my 2024 Sienna gives me backaches, so thats no good.

 

Very cool, didn't know you were a founder of Vankulture...

Yep, our Pacifica was $62k.

Yeah I know a few people who have parents who love their minivans. One of the longtime LS members here traded his LS on a Sienna.

An example of Minivans being better everyday people haulers. My wife has been out of town so I have been driving the Pacifica a lot taking the kids to and from stuff since the dog likes to ride along. He just steps right in vs a big SUV where he would stuggle to jump up even if it were possible. Big sliding door he just walks right in.

 

We had a small relationship with Toyota which then became Chrysler with the Pacifica. One of the guys built a Pacifica for SEMA with their support. I am partial to the PHEV.

 

Since we are on topic of Mercedes and Minivans, I wish they'd make a luxury cargo version of the Metris. They still sell the Cargo/Passenger version, and I have been considering getting the cargo version and fitting it out with some padding for sound deadening, or getting the already fitted out passenger version and ripping out the rear seats.

I often go to the track and trails, and I take either my work Sprinter or Metris to carry the bikes and gear. However my work vans are filthy and not fun to drive. If I could get a nice luxury van as a daily driven vehicle that could also carry the bikes, it would be ideal.

 

Yeah we have had 3, 2 gas ones and the PHEV...the PHEV is a dramatically better vehicle. Really a shame they cancelled it.

Plenty of companies that build such a vehicle using the Sprinter and Metris. There is actually a company in my hometown in WV that specializes in building out Sprinter and Metris vans for exactly that kind of use.

 

True, did not think of that. Probably $$$ but I bet they can fit a van out nicely! There is a girl who runs a motorcycle school here in NYC, she and her husband do a lot of track days - they custom fit out their Sprinter with a bed space and space for their motorcycles.

For the Metris, I am not even sure Mercedes still sells it? Their website lists the Metris as 2023. I know Ford, Nissan and Dodge have cancelled their small cargo vans, I guess MB is still selling off 2023 stock.

 

You'd be surprised, they are not that expensive. Maybe they did cancel the Metris...I hadn't heard...

This is the company in WV, they only talk about Transit vans but I know they do Sprinters because I have seen them there being built

https://enrgvans.com/

 

This would be a dream to get a van with a sick setup, not have to go to work and get away from society, lol.

 

Livin' the dream!

 

So I've been watching some of the videos on the VLE, I gotta say its a seriously nice van...

ICE variant is coming, right now they will sell the V series in ICE setup alongside it but it will be replaced by the ICE VLE. Will also be a more luxurious VLS

 

you’re saying it’s launched as an ev but they’ll be dropping the ev?

 

No there will be an ICE version coming alongside the EV