A friend. A gentle pal. A little beep-beep.
A GMod mapmaker's first func_vehicle, and just as hostile to human life.
I don't have a bone to pick in this fight, but I am perpetually confused about Americans' aversion to work vans. Do you know how much shit you can haul in a work van?? It's like a truck, except you can actually close it. And you can stack shit vertically. My mom's work van hauled most of my belongings over 600 km on 1 1/2 tanks of diesel!
I think it's a combination of a few things:
- Work vans are generally seen as, like, company vehicles. Having one for casual use would feel like wearing a suit and tie for a lazy day at home.
- Related to that, most people don't need to haul enough stuff, or frequently enough, to internally justify owning one. Most people just rent a van on the rare occasion that they do, such as when moving. (Most big pickup owners also don't need to haul stuff, but American pickups are built to look Intimidating and Big Super Macho Manly, so utility can fall by the wayside for that market).
- Having driven an (admittedly stripped-down for work) work van myself, when they're not loaded, they feel empty in a weird way that minivans and pickups don't. It's just kinda uncomfortable.
- Also? Low visibility out the back. I imagine that some models come with backup cameras these days, but if you don't have one, backing out of or into a space is just awful.
- At least in the 90s and 00s, an unmarked white paneled van was stereotyped as being The Stranger Danger Vehicle, from which pedophiles would coax random children into the back with promises of free candy. I haven't seen it as much lately, but it takes time to shake an association like that.
Most of those were vibes-based, of course, so I'm not surprised that this isn't the case in other countries.
