The Toyota Van is was the official van of Eugene, having handed the title to its natural (and obvious successor), the Toyota Previa. And the Toyota Van was handed its title by the VW bus. Yes, a box on wheels is a mighty handy thing for the Eugene lifestyle, whether it’s hauling home starts and fertilizer, or delivering produce to the farmer’s market. Or hauling the tools of the trade, whatever that may be. But their numbers are getting thin, and this one’s days may well be numbered, thanks to a punch in the face.
Of course I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone do some jury-rigging of the lights and such, and keep it going another 5 or 10 years. Clearly it’s not affecting its ability to move under its own power.
The engine and transmission in these are well protected from any impacts, given that they are nestled under a raised floor section between and just behind the front seats; a mid-engine van, actually. And that power train is legendarily long-lived, as is everything else about these. Which of course explains their longevity and why there are were so many on the streets here (sorry; I’m still getting used to the idea of these not being immortal and ubiquitous).
Looks like the owner of this one spent some time making it a bit quieter; a worthwhile undertaking. I really should do that with my xB.
It’ll be interesting to see when the last of these bites the bullet. Well, if I live that long, that is.
More: A Gallery of Curbside Toyota Vans – The Official Van of Eugene
In the late ’80s the boat shop I worked at had a Toyota forklift with the very same engine family that these vans used. An industrial van indeed.
Actually, that Toyota forklift engine would be great upgrade for Van, as that version is optimised to run on LPG (great for economy), has iron cylinder head and strenghtened valve seats. Probably slower than standard, but really able to run forever…
Ah, it got poked in the eye, that’s just a flesh wound, it’ll be around for long time yet. It even still seems to have its driver’s side door panel (it not the ones behind it though).
Good looking color, nice to see something besides the ubiquitous 80’s Gold that many (most?) of these seem to be…
I doubt very much that this is fatal damage. Who knows how long it’s already been like that.
No safety inspections there? Here, you would have to fix it within a year…sooner if a policeman spotted it. – Not because of body damage of course, but because of the broken headlight.
I became convinced of the value of safety inspections after living in Atlanta in the mid 80’s for about a year. There was a car that regularly parked near my office which had broken tail light lenses… essentially completely gone. After a few months the owner got to feeling so bad about it that he took a can of red spray paint and spray painted the tail light bulbs red. He did as careful a job as one could do… (I assume at midnight, in the rain, drunk, in 30 seconds). All I could think of was “If this guy isn’t spending any money on tail lights, you know he’s not spending any money on brake pads.”
No safety inspections in Eugene OR all of Oregon and most of the state has no emissions testing.
I stayed overnight in Eugene a few weeks ago, a few days after the snow but before it all melted. I found a clean cheap motel and a friendly bar with good food and cheap PNW beer on tap, but I didn’t see a single CC-worthy car. I think Paul has been making this stuff up, all along.
Where in Eugene? There are parts of the city that may technically be Eugene but the folks there would rather it wasn’t. 🙂
You should have gotten in touch with me; I give free tours to CC’ers that come to town.
It was just a quick overnight stop en route to Portland, and I totally realize I was not in the kind of residential neighborhood where CC’s go to rest. The last time I was in Eugene was at the end of the malaise era, when all the cars were destined to become CC’s, but it never have occurred to me that would happen. Thanks for the offer to meet up; I do go up and down I5 a few times a year to visit family in Portland, so I may take you up on it when I’m in less of a rush.
If it’s a stick shift,it would be totally worth saving.
Really cool van. I remember when the new more rounded previa came out it made this one look archaic. I love the purposeful look it has.
If you somehow combined the on-paper design of the original Chrysler T-115 with the quality of these, you’d really have a vehicle. Given a choice, I’d sooner take a chance with soundly designed, stable handling, innovative but iffy build quality Mopar over a knock-kneed, narrow-tracked, top& front heavy, hastily repurposed Japanese plumbers van any day of the week. Don’t get me wrong, I knew of several original Chrysler van owners back in the day who had real lemons. The fact that I still prefer it speaks volumes about the superiority of the concept, not the execution thereof.
Now the Previa that replaced this, that’s another story, but then again so was the ’96 egg-shaped Chrysler.
I’m with you Roger. I’d take the abysmally slow but steady Caravan over the tippy, death trap those forward control vans are. There’s a reason why they set the standard for so long.
Terrorist van is the first thing that comes to mind when I see these. They have all but vanished here in New England.
Haven’t seen one of these in central Indiana in at least 10 years, maybe 20. Were they rusters?
Buddy of mine had one in about 1990. Bought it because it was cheap, available, and would haul his drums. I rode in it a couple times and always thought its handling was peculiar, as if it moved on tippy toes.
Were they rusters? LOL what’s the name on the front? 🙂
Toyotas, despite their myriad virtues, will rust even on Vancouver Island, as my nephew’s Tacoma attested.
FWIW, I have never seen a Toyota of any vintage in Oregon with any rust on it, save some possible very minor surface rust. YMMV
Strangely among Japanese cars of the era I don’t remember seeing these like I did Camrys and Corollas looking like they had bites taken out of them, but I haven’t seen any in a decade either, unlike the Camorollas which still putter along occasionally despite half the body corroded away.
I think Minivans just naturally have short life cycles because children are smelly, disgusting and filthy, especially in bulk. At some point a used family van is akin to a used diaper, so they get thrown out just as fast.
Another factor is that these didn’t sell in huge numbers in the first place. I wouldn’t say they were “rare”, but like everyone’s minivans other than Chrysler, these weren’t really designed with the U.S. minivan market (as it came to be) in mind, and they weren’t really that competitive. I think Toyota knew that, and saw them mainly as a stopgap for Toyota loyalists until they could develop something better tailored to the U.S. minivan market. One online source shows the following U.S. sales figures:
1983 8,085
1984 47,296
1985 57,666
1986 55,167
1987 32,244
1988 13,983
1989 9,879
I’m not sure if these are MY or CY, but if they are CY, 1) that 1983 figure would presumably represent 1984 models sold in the later part of CY 1983, and 2) the 1989 figure may represent less than a full model year.
To put this in perspective, yearly sales of Toyota pickups in this era were routinely over 200K.
They are a reliable alternative to the VW Vanagon, but only if you get the all wheel drive version for better handling.
Better handling, despite having a higher ride height? Seems a bit counter-intuitive.
What I haven’t mentioned yet is I tried selling a Vanagon to my cousin, who was in the market in ’87. He didn’t bite, and he’s darn fortunate for it. He was a blue collar family guy with not much dough and a VW would have bankrupted him.
Even after I recommended he get a Magic-Wagon, he bought one of these Toyotas. He was vehemently anti-Detroit by then & loved to ramble on about his indestructable (& unwashed its whole life) Datsun 610 wagon. If you took a shotgun to it and left on a beach for a year, that’s what this thing looked like!
Anyway, the Toyota Van outlasted his marriage, he had it for almost 20 years!
Why must everything I like be so intrinsically dangerous? These are definite childhood nostalgia vehicles for me, and while they weren’t near as common in the Chicago area as the west coast there were enough to stand out amongst the caravans and our villager to leave an impression of how a Van should be!
Looks very easily fixable, either jerry rigged or finding (if possible) good parts from a salvage yard.
Near completely extinct in Southern California. I do remember seeing a 4WD cargo version at a dealer back in 1989. Never saw another one of that version.
Are these related or the same as the Lite Ace vans seen all over Asia (and elsewhere in the world)?
That’s what it is. Also the Town Ace.
That sound-proofing would be a very good idea. On mine at anything over 80kmh you couldn’t hear the radio at all. Lots of road noise and the diesel engine directly under the passenger seat, pretty much inside the van really…
It was a great workhorse, but the cooling system got quite corroded, so I got rid of it while it was still running. I took it to a car fair, and sold it for the asking price before I even managed to get in the gate.
Is this a cargo version or a passenger van with the seats removed? I know the cargo van had a different rear suspension to limit intrusion by the rear wheel wells.
i think you’re mistaken. What difference would there be? In the US, anyway, the only difference was whether it had windows (and seats) or not.
As you can see from the picture, the only intrusion is from the rear wheel well. There’s no way to get rid of that. 🙂
Cargo van rear wheel wells are identical, I’m looking at a picture of one that I need to write up. No difference at all in that respect. (and most other aspects for that matter)
Unless I’ve simply forgotten as the years went by, the cargo versions were never particularly common here. I think tradesmen would have been slower to embrace compact vans in general, and by the time they did, the Caravan C/V (or Ram Van whatchamacallit before that nomenclature) was already on the market and more appealing to the buy American inclination of the skilled trades.
I did see a windowless cargo Van in Raleigh a few years back, and 4WD no less. That’s a rare bird to be sure. Only got one photo though.
It looks like the bumper took the brunt of it.
Even in Portland the Master Ace and Previa are getting thin on the ground. I see some Siennas taking over their role though.
I think all of your disappearing Eugene vans ended up in Mid-Michigan.
No, really. Our local appliance repair guy has been driving one for a couple of decades.
And when I say one…
Streetview shows three of them, which doesn’t seem too unusual. Then take a look at the aerial view! I think I count 15 behind the barn?
Perhaps they’re the type of vehicle that folks tend to amass in multiples. There’s a guy here in Richmond who has two, both of them white (one with 80’s stripes, one without).
I think the Transit Connect may be a contender here. I’ve seen a few at bicycle races where they replaced Toyota Vans (although the well heeled and the bike shops favor Sprinters). I’m also seeing a lot of the new generation TC here in Bend partly as small work vehicles and partly as substitutes for the no longer available Mazda5.
As for keeping this Toyota running, a snow plow light is a classic redneck fix since it provides a headlight and a turn signal in one easily jury rigged unit. Or find a van that has been rear ended and cannibalize it. If the owner perseveres, then either replacing the original interior trim or putitng in plywood would be the next step.
When I lived in Eugene, one of our Red Cross volunteers drove one. He was retired and single at age 45. I guess there was no midlife-crisis Vette for this guy.