Quote Originally Posted by TsPoet View Post
Every time I see one of these I start to drool. Smallish with lots of room inside, generally used for businesses.
My other choice would be it's big brother - a sprinter van. Used, of course!
http://www.mbsprinterusa.com/sprinter/crew-van
Oh yes, I know about Sprinters (Sportsmobile is simply a modified, customized Sprinter), but they're not in the budget for now. Very cool, though!

I have not ruled out the Ford Transit, but I do have reservations about it. The cargo space is amazing, but there are drawbacks, like the tall profile I mentioned above (making parking decks a hassle). Also, I could not find safety data for it, possibly because it is more of a "truck" than a car. I'm also nervous about driving anything with metal panels instead of windows in back. Seems like that would make visibility/blind spots a lot worse. The Element was pretty bad in that respect, too, and if you flipped up the rear seats, I felt downright nervous driving it, since I couldn't look over my shoulders at blind spots before changing lanes. Perhaps you get used to that, but it's really hard to adjust mirrors to eliminate all blind spots.

Anyone have any feedback on that? I guess we could always test drive one.