These Are Your Favorite Vans

The best part of last week was the reveal of the Mercedes-Benz VLE, a new electric luxury van that, believe it or not, will be sold in the United States. Vans have already been having a bit of a renaissance in the U.S., but they're especially popular in Europe and Asia, where there are all sorts of new vans with cool designs and interesting technology. 

That got me thinking about my favorite vans, which led me to ask the Jalopnik readership what your favorite vans are. To my great appreciation, you lot had a ton of great answers, from modern vans to vintage ones, affordable vans to racing prototypes. Throughout history there have been so many incredible vans, including cargo vans and MPVs and minivans and all sorts of other kinda strange genre-busters, all of which were represented in the comments. I've rounded up my favorites here, but it's worth going through and reading the rest.

Fords SuperVan 4.2 — I know, there's not much -van- left of it, but still..

I think this is what EVs should sound like, tbh. No fake sounds, just make it sound like a jet taking off.

Submitted by: Someone Else

Every SuperVan has been awesome, but I think this latest one is my favorite because of how absurd it is.

we had a 1991 toyota previa – mid engine... about as close as you could get to a sports car in a van

When I was 18 my dad bought a new Toyota Previa, supercharged. 50/50 weight distribution, mid engine and a low center of gravity. It had a distinctive whine to it, and I would often push it to it's limits running it around the foothills in CA.

My late-night perusals of Craigslist always include a search for a Previa. I so want to find just the right one at just the right price and convert it into a mobile kayaking/paddle-boarding/stealth camping pod.

Submitted by: Michael Bells, The Alchemist, BuddyS

The Previa is just the coolest.

Renault Avantime. Too rare to live, too strange to die. 

Submitted by: Alf Enthusiast

One of my favorite cars of all time.

Mazda5. It's not fast, but for my use case it could totally work as a daily 1-car. An overland or rally treatment would be fun.

Submitted by: scoobylicious

I love the second-gen's design especially.

Currently, the Volkswagen ID.Buzz. Sure, it's range leaves us wanting, it's technically no longer being imported to the US, and the amenities for people aft of the first row are a little sparse. But I can't help but smile when I see one.

If they had brought the shorter one to the US, I definitely would have to consider it as my next purchase.

Submitted by: DynamicPresence

Don't believe the haters (especially my colleague Andy Kalmowitz), the ID Buzz rules.

I visit Japan from time to time. And this is my favorite. Widely considered the fastest cars on the road. I can call it a van, can't I?

Submitted by: JBJB

It's really a wagon, I think, but I'm gonna let it be a van as well.

Early 60's VW 23 window Deluxe Microbus. It's slower than molasses but that's okay, I'm never in a rush to get anywhere.

Submitted by: IB007

It doesn't get much better than one of these.

I had a first gen Chevy Astro in college and it was pretty awesome- it looked like a real van, just 3/4 scale. When my dad bought it it would actually turn heads.

Submitted by: Buckfiddious

The original Astro was such a great design.

i'm highly nostalgic for this little bugger. the Barkas B 1000, the east german answer to the VW Transporter. it also came in as many (if even more) variants

Submitted by: eftalanquest

Such a cutie!

When I was a kid in 1976(ish) my parents traded in our 1969 Datsun 510 wagon for a two-tone blue Ford Econoline van. Everybody in my parents' social group had vans. One friend had a metallic silver Dodge, another had a burgundy Chevy. Ours was the coolest.

Two-tone paint

My dad converted interior so we could use it for camping

Very cool chrome-reverse wheels (imagine Cragars with wide rims and really short spokes)

That's my favourite van. It's full of a million happy memories from my childhood.

Submitted by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

Another great design.

The family car when I was growing up was a 1999 Toyota Sienna LE in denim blue. My dad would fold down the middle bench seat and put this tiny little 8 or 9 inch TV with a built in DVD player on it that plugged into the cigarette lighter for road trips. It was also the car I learned how to drive on and, in high school, the car my friends would cram into when we'd drive to the mall or to the bowling alley or to Wal-Mart, because we were bored. Sometimes I really miss being a kid – it was a simpler time back then, before the advent of cell phones and social media. That van is front and center in many of my childhood memories and for that reason it is my favorite van.

Submitted by: JonRob 951

I was always jealous of the kids that had DVD players in their parents' cars.

Rivian's Delivery vans. Looks amazing in the Amazon color scheme. The headlights are adorable, and that bright blue rear garage door style with the wrap-around tail lights is also very cool.

Submitted by: StalePhish

I want Rivian to do a consumer minivan.