It helps that the sort of vans used for 12- to 15-passenger service are likely to have a lot in common with the manufacturer’s super-duty pickups. Passenger cars designed with a lot of attention paid to lightening things down in the name of both gas mileage and profit, are probably both given more-spirited driving and…

“Dad?”

The overall price of this package is super-premium, but yes, you then get to pay high operation costs. Diesel tends to be substantially more expensive than gasoline in the US, and even more so in California (see the blue box at the bottom of…

It’s kind of disposable at this point in its life.

Yeah, 96k on the clock is low mileage for year (US average is something like 12,000) but it isn’t exactly little old lady who only drove it to church (very fast) on Sunday mornings mileage. This leads to something to ponder in the ad’s combination of “enthusiast owned” and “driven very little.”

Though it isn’t discussed in the article, my (mis)understanding is that GM’s rationalization of their product lines included winding down GMC’s medium-duty truck business after an attempt to sell it to Navistar fell through. I think they’d been gone from the heavy-duty space for 20 years.

Somehow I just knew a pun thread was a-bruin.

A Cadillac from the days when that still really meant something is a difficult standard of comparison for any car of the living-room-on-wheels genre...

Not exactly fast (though an engine swap could change that easily and cheaply enough) but roomy and crazy comfortable on a long trip, and (to my eye) attractive. The low claimed mileage is what tips me toward NP, though I would try to negotiate the price unless it really runs and drives as new.

A sedan version filtered down to me from within the family. I think they just figured I was the ideal owner, as I have mechanic skills and live near a bus stop. Around 100,000 miles, it was already sloshing toward the drain end of the bathtub curve. Too many parts were designed with excess cleverness and then built…

Trick of the light, or did somebody in a parking lot fail to judge their corners and then display the combination of social graces and literacy to own up to it?

If this thing was really that unsafe, we would have read accounts about these seats breaking off already.

The seller is one of those Midlife Crisis Motors dealerships. I’m probably beating deadhorse.craigslist.org when complaining about seeing dealer cars in the by-owner listings, but still, it isn’t a great way to start a business relationship (and probably doesn’t lower the price any).

There’s a butt for every seat and vice versa somewhere...

The low mileage for year makes it an edge case, together with the lovingly garage-kept appearance. If you want one (de gustibus), you probably won’t find a better example at this point.  

For plenty of rural folk too, and all sorts of businesses that need secure, weatherproof storage on a plopware basis.  There is even avant-garde industrial-chic residential and light-commercial architecture based on them, some of it quite creative.  

Price and condition are in the no-man’s-land between nice trucks and woods bashers. I’ll tip my hat to how long and well it has served, but the age and mileage and tinworm don’t lead me to pull anything near $4k out of my wallet.

Of course, if total cost of ownership is an important factor, should any Maserati (or any of the fancier Italian cars) at any price even be on the table?

these cars are worthless

Hagertys makes me think that at that price, it had better be sagging in the back from the weight of all the trophies in the trunk. A “Good” in their tough grading scheme (“Runs and drives well. Flaws not noticeable to passers-by.  Most common condition”) should be about ten grand less.  Nice car at a no-dice ask.