Small Businesses need small vans - yo, where are they?

If you found this, you're a van man. Most hits this site gets is for van-related stuff. I don't really care that much about vans, but my dad does. He drives one every weekday, full of heavy equipment, tools, van stuff. He drives a Sonoma, but he used to drive an Astro. Why do I care, Alex? Because if you want a small van in North America, you're essentially screwed. Most of the vans at your shopping disposal will be huge.

I know most van radios are tuned to Conservative talk radio and I know that people who listen to Conservative talk radio don't like Europe. And yet, in Europe your van can be as small or as big as you like. The most popular van remains the Ford Transport. Not the front-wheel drive Transport Express. In Europe, you can buy tiny hatchbacks that are all set to take your small amounts of stuff around town. The one pictured is a Fiat, but most of the Euro brands will sell you one of these.

But I have a whole lot of crap and also Europe is socialist, you say. Peel the Bush Chaney sticker off your pickup shell and have a look at all the van combination you could be enjoying with 5 different sizes of Renault Vans. I promise you someone will be desperate to buy that link. But at the moment, it goes to Renault's official van site. And it will make the American van driver drool.

Why can't you buy that many van combinations in America? Anybody's guess. Mine is that when SUVs became popular, van makers couldn't rely on Joe Plumber or my dad repairman for their profits. Vans like the Astros or the Ford Aerostar wanted to sell families expensive, cushy vans. Selling my dad a shell with a V6 and rear-wheel drive wasn't a money maker. So instead, they made you get a pickup or an SUV. Now, if you go around in a white box all day, your choices are almost none-existend. Huge Chevy Sonoma, huge Dodge Sprinter or Huge Ford 250-prison-van-thing.