Just curious, why are trucks worth more than vans?

Simple question so there most be a simple answer

I regularly see pickups for sale with an asking price in the $15-20k while nice vans rarely go above $10k. Are the pickups so much more of a rare bird to justify this steep price or am I missing something?

Just curious...
Mr. D

I own a 1969 fleetside shortbed Chevy pickup that has almost doubled in value in the past year according to the NADA Classic Car Price Guide. I think it's because the cheap repairables are becoming rare. Plus classic pickups have always been more desireable. It takes a certain breed to own a classic van!!!

I think it depends largely on condition, and also somewhat on public perception of these old vans.  Most vintage vans I see come up for sale have been neglected/abused their whole life and are in very poor condition, and any 'nice' vans are often 'customized' in unfortunate ways, not stock, which reduces resale value.  The overall public image of these old vans is they are somehow associated with counter-culture and drug use, 'hippy vans', 'scooby vans', or rolling room 'love shacks' (eww, quite gross if you actually think about it) where hippies slept or did whatever other things you could imagine in the back which gives a cheap, riffraff connotation, which degrades their desirability as true collectibles.

Even "nice" vans are often the victims of neglected maintenance or owners who are simply not knowledgable regarding mechanics, or don't have the motivation to fix stuff properly, so everything is a compromise, held together with duct tape and bailing wire.  Eventually the whole thing becomes overwhelming, which is when it finally gets put up for sale.

I think your right Kooky. My 66 was obviously a work van seeing that it did not have a passenger seat. all the other vans were hippy vans. In the 70's they started coming out with the conversion vans which were terrible gas hogs so people tended to stay away from them. Then in the 80's trucks and vans were seen to be safer so people started buying more of them. My 76 ChevyVan has a story behind it. It was a Hippy/Witch van.LOL!!! The woman who owned it practiced Witchcraft. The van and the witch came from New Mexico and somehow ended up in Wisconsin. (I still have the NM. plates). She had a boyfriend up here in Wisconsin and ended up MURDERING him and went to prison. The van sat at the PDC police station for the longest time until it was auctioned off some time around 2010. The guy that bought it owns a tire/repair shop and he ended up selling the van to a guy that owns a sign shop. He turned around and put it up for sale when he found out the history of the witches van. He didn't want anything to do with it and just wanted to get rid of it. I saw it sitting out in front of his sign shop and gave him his asking price of $500. I drove the van home but the trans would not shift into 3rd gear (probably from sitting around so long). I gave it a tune up and cleaned out the Quadrajet and just drove it around town a little every day and the trans finally got freed up and would shift into all gears. I had to tack down the left rear roof, repair and reseal the entire drip edges, painted the roof ,windshield, and hood, and had a new windshield installed. The van had a chevy 350 crate engine installed some time in the mid 90's. She runs strong. Some day I will finish painting her and install the door and window seals that I got.

Like mine.. Brent (uante) looks to have spent a small fortune restoring. There is a differences between someone who has restored not just maintained their vehicle ( maintaining veries from person to person). IMO I can't imagine anyone thinking their restored van is any less valued than a restored truck.

I totally bucked the system and got one of each...but if it came to it I would sell the truck over the van every time and twice on Sunday. I just love my van more!!

Those are sweet toys you got there!

It's interesting to get peoples opinions on this but to all things equal do trucks really fetch more money or is it just me seeing things? And I agree, I'd take a van any day over a truck!

Cheers D so
Mr. D

Pretty sure the vans outnumbered the pickups by like 10 to 1 as far as numbers produced so the trucks should be more rare. That aside, I love vans but let's face it, vans are a square box that basically still continue production today but the early trucks are really unique and "just have style".

I believe 99% of us do not care what the end value is, I know I just want to ENJOY my 1963 VAN, I am not doing this rebuild to leave monies to my children or SHH............. my wife.

So true!

Makes sense the disparity in price is due to the ratio of what's still on the road today. Regardless, I feel we get so much more out of a van that I'm glad they are the cheaper ones and not the other way around.

Thanks again and happy vannin!

Cheers
Mr. D

Im with mexbob I have way more in my truck than I will be able to sell it for but I luv it cause its cool.  I do believe to price point on our vehicles is all f'ed up because you can find a total basket case and people are getting about $5000 for them and when you see one that is really nicely restored and they have trouble pulling $20,000 out of it something is wrong here.  Just sayin

There's also another factor I see,that is, there's been a renewed interest in COE vehicles being restored to use as towing rigs. The look and design of the Econoline Pickup lends itself to that appeal factor. A mini version of a COE. Let's face it---these little trucks are pretty rare as Ford offered 3 different types of pickups in the early 60's. The Econo pickups where chosen less often,thus their rarity today. Rare and unusual will drive price upwards. Vans also have another factor that drives their prices down. Vans depreciate faster than any other type of vehicle---always faster than a pickup. To me, this means people see trucks as a more viable vehicle than a van. Don't get me wrong, I love vans---it just most people don't. This drives prices down on vans. There are trends in the collector car market---so prices do ebb and flow over time. A weak economy also effects prices on collector vehicles at the bottom of the spectrum, but not always at the top end.
IMO Mike C

When people get older they want to get the vehicle they had when they first started driving, or they want the vehicle they wished they could have had when they were young, but could never afford.
Back then, nobody drove a cargo van as a personal vehicle. Pickup trucks were sometimes driven as a personal vehicle. A good pickup truck is a status symbol amoung many in this country. Vans never had the macho apeal, they were for delivering, not driving.

Funny thing is that the NC DMV values the Econo vans much higher than the Econo pickups, which translates to higher sales tax for the olde vans. Strange!

I desagree with Barnabas, i was in Bc Canada in 1976 and we were about 100 of van traveling the coast every week-end and at that time we didn,T see much of pick-up trucks driving around like us Vanners. I own a 1973 Dodge Power Wagon that i almost finish restoring, i also own a 1977 Dodge Ramcharger (not 4X4) wich is rare and last year i bought a 1974 Ford Econoline, cargo with a 302 and 3 on a tree trans and 4:10 diff. My Ramcharger was evaluated at $4500.00 by a professionnal evaluator. So from my point of vue i dont see how my van is less valued than a pick-up i refused $7000.00 for it last fall. Maybe they are more rare in Canada (Quebec) It has no rust and no modification at all. When i have finish restoring my 73 Dodge Power Wagon, i will sell it to buy a Dodge van with all around windows and turtle roof....Van is another style of life that gives you freedom. I dont like to search for hotel, or motel when i travel i've been stock many time at special fests without a place to sleep...No more of that i now can sleep in my van anywhere i want...and can bring my Harley, park the van and drive around with my bike...van gives me more possibility....

I just bought a 1991 Ford with a 5.0 liter fuel injection engine and 4 speed trans to replace all mechanical and electrical component of my 74 E's i think i will become more economical to drive around the country

I agree with MexBob

It's because trucks are just WAY COOL !!!!!

I agree with Dan. This is Beautiful!!!


But this is sexier.

Believe it or not, the Econoline was never supposed to be a van. It was originally designed as a cab forward unit body light pickup. Kind of complimenting the Ford F100 unit body pickups of the early sixties. Ford engineers toyed with different bed cover designs and then decided late in the development process to make a panel version of the pickup and as they say, the rest is history. Good thing they did make the panel version which of course is the van we are all fond of today. During the 7 year production run Econoline pickup sales barely made up 10% of the sales during each production year. Had Ford never added the panel (van) version, they would have lost their shirts on research and development as the Econoline pickup was just never really popular when it was new compared to the van. As such, the production numbers run almost 10 to 1 vans vs. pickups so the pickups are rarer and during their service life were run harder with heavier loads and so many more of those saw the bone yard early compared to the vans.

twday wrote:
... Had Ford never added the panel (van) version, they would have lost their shirts on research and development as the Econoline pickup was just never really popular when it was new compared to the van. ...

And we would not be here today. Thanks Mr. Ford.

What really aggravates me is that Ford decided to change the name to Transit rather than just keep the Econoline name. Yes I know, I know the Transit name has been used in Europe almost as long as the Econoline name has been used in the U.S.

My prediction is that eventually they will go back to the Econoline moniker just as they did with the Ford Five Hundred sedan. When this new car came out in 2005, they called it the Ford Five Hundred. Ford couldn't give them away. Then in late 2007 or early 2008, without any, I mean any changes to the body style or drive train, they renamed the cars Taurus, bringing back the old Taurus name. Those same cars went flying off the new car dealers lots with nothing more than a name change. And now the Taurus is still alive.

At this time the Transit sales are not that hot. So keep a close eye on a possible coming name change.

If you get a chance, Google Ford Transit and look at the photos and specs. They are pretty neat. As a matter of fact the second gen. Transit looks like a 2/3 size third gen Econoline.
And you can put a 4 cyl. Mustang Turbo in the little buggers. Who would a thunk?