One of the neighborhood characters growing up was “Toyota Van Man”, a middle-aged gentleman who drove a denim blue Toyota van. We never knew much about him, but assumed based on his vehicle choice that he was some kind of pederast. More likely, he was a hard working immigrant from Vietnam who lived on top of our local pizza joint and we were a group of overprivileged adolescent brats.

Over a decade has passed since my friends and I would shriek at the sight of “Toyota Van Man”, and these mid-engined oddities have all but disappeared from the roads. But Auto City, a Redwood City, California car dealer, has a Toyota Van for sale, with a mere 85,000 miles. Sporting a “Gold” on red color combo (come on, it’s brown), and a 5-speed manual transmission, this is an automobile that was born before customer clinics and brand management were a twinkle in the eye of an ex-Bausch & Lomb marketing wag. Bidding starts at $1,100. Hell, you could even submit an alternate album cover for the Black Keys with this thing.

Thanks to Bring A Trailer for today’s entertainment