7/31/13

Well, there’s no use denying it, I've got the shit-hots for a full-sized van.  John sent me a text a little while ago saying something to the effect of, “Those Nissan ‘vans’ are huge!”  I agreed and asked if he was looking at a high or low top.  It was a high top.  He claims to have never seen a low top “in the tin.”  I rather redundantly replied back, “Super-size a Ford Flex or super-duper-size a Scion xB.”  I say “redundantly” because I've made that comparison before to him with regards to those three “separated at birth” triplets.  Anyhoo, after chatting with him about them, I went to Kelly Blue Book on line and compared some vans side by side.  Yeah, I still think I'm leaning towards a Ford Econoline.  The Nissan is cool and all, but the V8s go for $30,000.00 and I'm pretty sure if I'm buying something as a replacement for Fifi I'm not going to tow with a V6 anymore.  Of course these are new vehicles I've been looking at.  What I'll probably wind up with is something used, which is ok since I don’t really like the nose on the new Econoline… and the Nissan is thirty grand!  Oh, the Ford is just shy of thirty large as well, but… well, I'm not sure what.  Suffices to say, I'll be getting a used van if I replace Fifi… which we all agree is a monumentally stupid thing to do, so you don’t even need to mention it.  Of course what I'd like is a first-generation, cab-over, van from one of the “Big Three.”  With a cabby it is easier to find a manual transmission, however that also almost guarantees it will be a straight six engine.  Of course now that I think about it, any era van with a manual transmission is probably going to be a six.  And air conditioning will be a rare thing in something of the C/O era as well.  So, a second generation van should be where I'm shopping.  I don’t hate the third gen Econolines, in fact Pat and I had one for a time… so that is a possibility.  The Chevy and the Dodge didn’t really change much once they went away from the cab-over until a relatively recent remodel so just about any year of those would be fine.  Of course it would really be settling if I had to go for a Chevy or GMC van… but for some reason a GMC would be less objectionable than a Chevy to me.  Fuh, it would have to be just exactly the perfect tow rig for me to go down the GM route, now that I think about it.  I can see me stewing over every little flaw in the thing and being totally pissed off at trading a perfectly good Ford for a damned GM.  No, we probably shouldn’t even entertain a GM van unless it is… shit, I can't think of anything that would be so superlative that it could overcome the drag of it being a GM product.  As a backup vehicle, maybe… but not as a replacement for Fifi.  No, we need to concentrate on Fords or Dodges.  Well, I'm just sitting here staring at the screen again because I've totally lost all momentum with this rant.  I think I'm going to call it a day.