Okay, so I live in BC on the west coast which means I’ve spent a fair chunk of time on logging roads. There are signs everywhere and the assumption is, “You’re the one who’ll get the fuck killed, so look the fuck out!” This places the responsibility square on the shoulders of anyone not hauling a bazillionty tons of…

Well, except it’s not is it? Maybe once, in the days of struggling to find funding, but not now. So if someone has an idea and the ability to execute it...

Can you imagine a world where the manual option, historically the cheaper of the two, meant paying a premium over the automatic?

All of us would “want one” but scarce few of us would have actually shelled out and thus; not to be had.

Those big tree trucks.

Good point!

Many, if not most, of their products do not need a manual. Very few are well suited to one and those that do have a less than spectacular throw and feel.

Or a Camaro if you want the same chassis with a V8 and minus two doors.

They aren’t Hippies. Just some sort of ancestral dead end preceding the arrival of Hipsters.

I don’t love it.

I think that’s the confusion. We tend to conflate the decline of manuals in new cars with an utter end to manual transmissions, but that’s just not the case. As long as there’s a market, there will be a provider no matter how boutique, old cars with sticks ain’t going away too quickly and swaps will pretty much be an…

DICKS!

What the fuck is an ‘80's Hippie?!

No, I agree.

That’s actually something I utterly failed to consider and when one does, and notes that the price point is what drew Hippies to Toasters, it makes sense for the Vanagons to fill that role... even if they’re blowing up in price as well.

Something about a brand like Tesla operating out of an old nuclear power plant speaks to me, to my very soul.

When the Officer waved me by, it was. Before that I was unsure if I was about to be assaulted, then arrested. It was a real roller coaster.

Enthusiasts are the smallest part of the car buying public and automakers have realized this. The result? Enthusiast cars are readily available at six digit sticker prices, less common in the mid range and then pop back up occasionally on the cheaper end of the spectrum.

Maybe once. Now, however, I loathe it for trying to appropriate the Type 2's place in history as the Hippie Van.

Type 2's will always be Hippie Vans to me. But the Vanagon is totally welcome to the title “Terrorist Van” because, sorry, I loathe the damn things.