Vans

A van is a box-shaped vehicle with a platform and four-wheel-drive power train similar to a truck with an enclosed back instead of the open bed of a pickup truck. The name is derived from “caravan,” a covered vehicle. In the United States, most vans are in the light-truck vehicle class, which consists of motor vehicles designed for transportation of property and that have a gross vehicle weight rating less than 8,500 pounds. Some vans, especially commercial vans, are too heavy for this classification. Most vans can be driven with a standard driver's license (provided they are not used for school transportation) and are held to a fuel economy standard based on their footprint.

The modern van was developed by American car manufacturers in the 1960s, inspired by the popularity of the Volkswagen bus. The “chicken tax,” a 25 percent tariff imposed on imported light trucks (including the VW bus) in retribution for the West German ban on American chicken, slowed the sales of the Volkswagen bus in the mid-1960s and allowed American manufacturers to better compete with it on price. These compact vans met a growing demand that the bus had helped inspire.

The front of the vans was typically short, with the engine mounted in the passenger compartment between the two front seats, at least in the case of the early Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge vans. Full-size vans followed as the engine was transferred to the front of the vehicle with a short hood, and truck-like parts and features were added. Vans made an indelible mark on American popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s, such that the children of that era grew up to become the young parent demographic to whom minivans were then marketed in the 1980s and 1990s, before the popularity of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) threatened the minivans' market share.