You can’t walk into a movie theater today and watch Jerry Macguire. The sitcom Seinfeld is no longer a prime-time TV show, and “prime time” as a whole barely exists anymore. Sublime, No Doubt and other ska punk bands are no longer bothering us from most pop radio stations.
No, it’s not 1996 anymore, and there have been a lot of changes in the last thirty years (good Lord, does that make one feel old?). However, you can still visit a Chevrolet or GMC dealership and drive out in almost the same full-sized van that you could during the Clinton administration.
Something that’s worked that hard deserves some compensation for its decades of services to plumbing contractors and electricians nationwide. Instead of a gold watch and pension, let’s give it a makeover aesthetically, and maybe even use it to create a hybrid EV van without spending a billion dollars on something new.
Three Decades Of Hard Work
Big vans are like the custodians at your junior high school: very few people pay attention to these hard workers until they fail, start to get so old that people start to think that they can’t do the job, or a brand new and much younger replacement comes along.
To twenty-something me in the nineties, a “Chevy Van” was as constant as stuffing and gravy on Thanksgiving Day, mainly because the 1995 model was basically the same thing that was introduced in 1971. It had been everything from a Bell Telephone van to dens of iniquity with bubble windows and airbrushed murals from my earliest memories.
In late 1995, when I saw the new model for the first time in a parking lot with its wraparound taillight above the rear cargo doors, smoothed-out flanks, stylish door handles, and aerodynamic nose it was rather mind-blowing, like seeing your Aunt Betty replaced by some android replicant. The 1996 Express/Savannah seemed to follow the same principles of the earlier 1988 GMT400 pickup trucks; simple, functional aesthetics that were perfectly balanced and didn’t pretend to be anything they weren’t. The first Express/Savannah even had an entire front end almost lifted verbatim from the contemporary GMT400, either with composite lights or good old, sealed beams on lesser Cargo models.
Truth be told, the Express/Savannah has aged pretty well visually. It looks far less dated today than the previous model did in 1996 (even though that model was only a mere 25 years old at the time). The basic body is an extremely clean shape with minimal detailing; the 2024 models below are barely changed since 1996:
The Express/Savana could be made to look rather current and match the latest GM truck aesthetic, or really any look we want. Besides being fun there’s another big reason to try- let me explain.
Cheap Is Good
Nothing lasts forever, and reports are that the Express and Savanna are indeed on borrowed time. The traditional Dodge vans (which dated back to 1971) died in 1998 when then-Daimler Chrysler replaced them with the Mercedes Sprinter Vans. Ford’s E-Series traditional vans (which were redone in 1992) ceased being sold as standard vans in 2014, but you can still buy one as a stripped cab chassis to be used as something like a commercial vehicle or motorhome.
Within the next year or two these GM vans with basic chassis that date back to 1971 will likely be replaced by an all-new design or a modern EV similar to what we’ve seen from GM with the Brightdrop. It looks a bit like a me-too Rivian Amazon van, which is almost exactly what you’d expect.
I can understand the move, but this Brightdrop thing isn’t a REAL van, right? Traditional full-sized vans are an American institution; this Rivian/Canoo stuff just isn’t. At that same time, these Dustbuster-shaped Ford and RAM things are obviously taken right off the streets of Dusseldorf or Milan, so why should they ply the streets of Clevland? If you write FREE CANDY on the side of a Ford Transit or get thrown into the back of a RAM Promaster FIAT-thing or live in it down by the river, it doesn’t have the same feel as an old Econoline, does it?
Joking aside, there’s a real reason why something like the old Express should exist. It’s the same reason that companies like Lada and Yugo sold brand new examples of cars based on ancient designs in North America: they were dirt cheap. Up until recently, Stellantis did the same thing by offering its old 2009 era pickup as a bargain-priced RAM 1500 Classic to complement the newer design RAM 1500 they sold; you’d get a fully functional brand-new warrantied product at a cut-rate price.
Also, if you try to spec out an Express on Chevy’s website, you’ll see that it gets north of $50,000 rather quickly. The new Brightdrops are a relative steal at only $78,000 to start when compared to the Rivian Van, but that’s pricey.
Sure, it’s old, and a writer on some other car site called the Express “the worst vehicle they’d ever driven.” However, I rent these when I need to move big prototypes to clients, and it drives like a van; nothing more and nothing less. The Euro-inspired Ford and Stellantis ones I’ve sampled were a little better, but who cares? That car reviewer–who might be too young to have any real reference for what a true crap vehicle is–can talk about NVH and steering feel, but what if he or she suddenly owns a business and needs to buy three or four vans for delivery guys to run? I promise that price will suddenly be the most important factor.
Let’s look at the basic van one more time:
With such a blank canvas, we could really make the Express/Savana into almost anything we want. As an Autopian, I want some strange stuff.
Version 1: ExpressEV
Before we go off the rails, let’s start with a basic refresh of the Express/Savannah. I’ll add a nose similar to the Silverado EV, except (and this was a Jason Torchinsky request) the headlamps below the glowing upper daytime running light strips will be actual sealed beam units. You can see that I’ve also added new steel wheels, plastic rocker panel covers, painted the “A” pillars black, and added a “non glare” section to the hood. This is really just a very cheap trick to make the windshield appear to be more raked and larger.
In back, the body-colored side trims below the wraparound taillights change to grey or black plastic pieces that connect to the bumper and include LED taillights to create a back end that looks much like the Rivian Amazon van.
Why make the Express look so much like these electric vehicles? That’s because it would be electric; there’s plenty of room under the old van for batteries. However, I’m thinking more of a hybrid with a gasoline range extender. The idea is similar to the upcoming RAM Ramcharger EV with a V6 and two drive motors, where ICE engine doesn’t drive the wheels themselves.
We also don’t necessarily need a motor as large as the RAM is using to charge the batteries. In this GM version, the current gas Express motors would be replaced a small four-cylinder that will merely act as a range extender for charging. Our ExpressEV (pronounced Expressive) will naturally be much simpler with a single motor powering through the same driveshaft as before, since it will still be rear-drive only. Here’s a rough schematic (but you can see there’s plenty of extra room for even more batteries).
Having a range extender makes sense in a workhorse that just might not have time to stop and charge up between flower and salty snack deliveries.
Version 2: Heritage Edition
What if we didn’t try to update the look of the Express? Maybe even do the opposite and “backdate” it like some people do with Porsche 911s to make a newer car look like a much earlier model? We could recreate the kind of Chevy van they sang songs about and that Ponch and John chased in episodes of CHiPs!
The “Heritage” version of the Express would be just that. I’d use the first nose that van came with it 1971 since it’s the most iconic with the round lights surrounded by square apertures, but in my take those white frames would glow as daytime running lights. Other than that new grille, I’d do nothing else to it: that’s where you, the buyer, come into play. The owner of this one below lowered it, threw on some Rallye wheels with wide tires, installed a bubble window, and had a very interesting choice of art to place on the side.
If we wanted to do more, the back could get a similar treatment to the front, like all body-colored side and top trims, replacing the taillights with units that look like the seventies model:
Nothing quite like a vintage vehicle that really isn’t a vintage vehicle, though one could argue that the Heritage edition is really just a sort-of-vintage vehicle under a very-vintage-looking body.
Version 3: Express SS ZL1
Jason Torchinsky recently reported that the Express/Savana was the last car you could buy without a touch screen, and in the comments StillNotATony mentioned how much they wanted to see a high-performance SS version of this old van. Mercedes Streeter concurred that such a product would be highly desirable, and why wouldn’t it be? A true muscle car was often a body-on-frame setup with a big motor up front pumping power to live rear axle that hopped up and down when you hammered the gas: that’s this van all the way.
There’s room for a decent-sized supercharged V8 up front behind the Camaroesque nose we’ll put in place. Ground effects, wide rubber, big brakes and even a wing on the roof will complement the look. We could give it some decent seats up front, and that lump you see on top of the dash in front of the driver in the pic below would house a thin digital linear band tachometer and boost gauge to complement the relatively comprehensive gauges of the standard Express. Naturally, this fancier version would also have the double-DIN old-school radio Jason wrote around replaced by a Carplay screen.
You know it’ll be faster than a scalded cat, would do burnouts visible from space and if you take an exit ramp at speed the back end will shift out like two feet when the rear wheels hit a bump just like American cars did in days of old. That was always fun! Let’s face it- most of those vintage muscle cars handled like shit anyway, and they didn’t have the space of a Manhattan studio apartment behind them for cargo or even more seats like the A-Team van had (it must have been awful not being able to see out from back there). Mercedes Streeter might not be nuts for wanting one of these; it would make a perfect 22nd car for her.
Also, I saw that the pace car at next year’s Indianapolis 500 will be a Corvette for the umpteenth time in a row. It’s a different version from the previous years, but this is getting stale. Honestly, over the years some of the Indy support vehicles, including trucks, were just as interesting as the pace cars themselves.
I know that a Pace Van edition of the Express ZL1 would get more attention to the “greatest spectacle in racing” and put this high-powered van on the map with media outlets desperate for content:
Even if it couldn’t keep pace with the field as the actual pace car, it could certainly be a support or parade vehicle, and no matter how you spun it people would notice. Also, as a cargo van, it’s also one of the few pace vehicles where adding lurid graphics on the side doesn’t really destroy the car.
Last Van Standing
Give us a Brightdrop thing if you must, but with the tooling likely bought and paid for many times over, General Motors has nothing to lose by keeping the old van alive to sell alongside it. You might remember that GM dropped their full-sized B-Body sedan in 1996, while Ford continued to make the big Panther body for well over a decade more and reaped the success of having the livery and law enforcement market all to itself. I mean, how many of you still hit the brakes when you see a white Crown Vic sedan or partially expect to get a black Town Car when you call for limo car service?
I’ve offered just three possible options to making this final traditional van even more useful and strangely fun, but you can probably think of many more. Maybe a C/K underpinned off-roader? What about a contemporary take on the old conversion vans, now hopefully without curtains, tufted seats and wood tissue box holders? For whatever reason, doing these mods to a traditional van instead of the Transit/Promaster variety seems more natural.
The Express van can be whatever you make it. Isn’t that what van culture is all about?
Enough Searching! The Motorhome For The Autopian Staff Is Right Under Their Noses – The Autopian
Our Daydreaming Designer Imagines The Ultimate Autopian Tour Bus – The Autopian
The Daydreaming Designer Shows How To Make A Budget Tiny House From A Broken RV – The Autopian
Does A Daydreaming Designer’s Semi Sleeper Concept from 1990 Make Sense? – The Autopian
That red ’71 has a rare grille treatment that either was only used on ’71 base models or never made production at all. Notice the selective blackout of the upper grille where not only are the squares around the headlights but the raised ribs are picked out in white, and how there’s a panel between it and the bumper with the turn signals in it, painted body color?
From ’72 at the earliest, the upper ribs were left in black and the in-between panel was painted white regardless of body color. That’s on vans without the chrome package – with those the in-between panel was always chrome and the raised ribs too, from 1971-77 before the ’78 facelift brought in the first of the pickup-style plastic grilles. Chrome-grille (RPO V22 in GM-speak) vans also had the area inside the headlight-surround squircles left chrome or painted silver.
I can’t find any non-factory photos of a ’71 whose grille is like the one pictured, but paint was a service item in the ’70s and the painted grilles were routinely repainted all in black, white or body color without the selective blackout. The methods of doing it in the factory stayed there and hand-painting it back in was too much hand labor to put into an aging work truck.
Both the be-Torched Heritage and the ExpreSS ZL1 need more side pipe.
As others have said, the ZL1 is “Job well done!”
The ZL1 van looks better than it has any right to be
They need to make a boogie van and call it the “STD”.
Some should do a competition at SEMA next year to see who can do the wildest version.
Guru Torch, guide me to automotive enLIGHTenment. Show me the way to tail light nirvana.
Hippie Guru Jason needs to be on a T-shirt.
But only from TotalSally, free love is one thing but business is business.
I’ll say as someone who has this setup that square halos on sealed beams is a look. Not suitable for every van or truck of the vintage, but I like it on mine: https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/spoolbus.jpg
Unfortunately at the moment I can only find square halos on the very terrible sealed beam drop-in LED units which are just big flashlights and don’t have a good beam definition or any cutoff really. So, for Spool Bus, I keep them pointed more down than they would otherwise be, in a desperate attempt to be minimally assholic.
You should call the base version the Express Vanilla.
The Ram Van was made through 2003, not 1998. I don’t think Sprinters were even a thing in the US until after 2000.
Indeed- thanks for the correction!
Turn on, tune in, drop out, Torch is marketing GOLD! Not sure if that or Free Candy would get you pulled over quicker. You need to make T-shirts available!
The ExpreSS needs a GMC version. With turbine wheels.
Also, I am HONORED to have inspired a Bishop creation! I just became a member, and this is content I am happy to support.
Because it’s cool, not just because I like seeing my username called out.
Okay, the callout is also pretty neat.
Thank you for the idea!
So long as it has a wing on the back.
I have no idea what you’re arguing for here, but I loved the article.
That being said: kill the express.
Bring back small vans. Not everything needs to be huge.
You missed out on not remaking the A Team van paintjob (Copyright issues?).
I grew up with my family’s large vehicle being a 1985 Chevy Beauville (passenger van). We’d sleep on a pad in the back (the last bench being missing) on long road trips. When I was 14, we replaced the ’85 with a ’95, but it was essentially the same vehicle.
Road trips were just fantastic. If you were tired of sitting where you were, you could move around to another bench, or head to the back to sleep, or whatever. I remember seeing other families where the kids had to stay put in the same seat the entire trip and feeling so bad for them.
It boggles my mind that you can still essentially buy the vehicle I grew up in–exact same configuration–brand new in 2024.
Another reason these things sell so well is fleet managers know all the part numbers for maintenance items already, they have multiple sets of each on the shop shelf and don’t have to worry about whether they fit unit 25 or unit 204.
I don’t truly believe GM is actually ready to axe this thing. As far as I know there is no replacement in the works, and I doubt the Brightdrop (as cool as it is) can be produced in sufficient volume to meet demand, to say nothing of it not having an ICE version, which some fleets will demand. I would not be at all surprised to read sometime next summer that the Express/Savana twins are getting yet another stay of execution while GM figures out how to again update the platform they currently have.
From their site, it looks like they already axed the 1500. So you can only buy commercial rated ones, meaning no emissions requirements and most safety is out the window. These are truly just printing them money from buyers that don’t want a “european” style van.
They’ve only offered the 2500 and 3500 for a few years now. Anything up to one ton has to comply with emissions and safety regs as they are still considered light duty vehicles in the eyes of the EPA and NHTSA.
Maybe I’m confused on emissions classes because in NY 3/4 ton and above don’t get an emissions check for their annual state inspection (which in NY just amounts to plugging into the OBD2 port and making sure there’s no check engine light).
The 2500 and 3500 spec vans are also above the 6,000lb threshold for a commercial vehicle tax writeoff, while the shorter wheelbase 1500s were probably under that, so another potential reason the 1500s were cut.
The 1500s weren’t under the commercial vehicle threshold, but GM just didn’t sell very many. The GVWR of the 1500s were too low to actually put 12 people in them, much less plus gear so the only 1500 “passenger” models you’d find are conversion vans (that people were probably overloading by the numbers). Then for fleet sales most of those guys wanted the load capacity for their equipment/for towing/both (1500s can only tow 6500 pounds, 2500/3500 it’s 10k). It ended up just being a really niche use case where one made sense and for most of those people they’re probably just fine with buying the 2500 anyway.
It’s federal law that your car has to be emissions-compliant. Testing to prove compliance varies by state, or even within states. New York is simply choosing not to bother testing for compliance on anything 3.4 ton and above.
The Express 2500 and 3500 have emission requirements. The cargo versions are Light Heavy duty and the passenger versions are medium duty passenger vehicles.
408 pages of requirements here:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2011-09-15/pdf/2011-20740.pdf
That ZL1 gave me a tickle I haven’t felt in a while. 10/10 design.
That said,
Sublime, No Doubt and other ska punk bands are no longer bothering us from most pop radio stations.
How dare you
How dare you indeed. For the music folks here (Matt) I also want to suggest Mealticket—everything musically No Doubt wishes they were.
Pardon me, but why is stoner Torch not riding a dragon on the side of Version 2?
I nearly cried when they discontinued the Crown Vic, and I’ll probably actually cry when this is killed off. Just like the Vic, this is the last in the line of a once ubiquitous type of American vehicle.
I see what you did there with the Heritage back. You just wanted an excuse to make hinged tail lights happen.
So that Jason could write about the repeater lights needed to make these legal
Yeah, I’m baffled as to why GM wants to drop it. There has to be a lot of profit per unit. There are plenty of loyalists. It can be outfitted to tow better than the Ford or RAM.
Just figure out a way to use the engines from the current Silverado and leave it the heck alone.
I thought they would at least keep it going as a chassis cab like Ford has with the E-Series. The market for vehicles to upfit for commercial and specialized use has to be pretty robust.
crash test results? emissions?
Luckily since they’re currently considered commercial vehicles the former is not a problem, and they still just use the truck powertrains that have to be emissions compliant anyway.
those are excellent points
There are some big changes happening for vehicles 8501 lbs and over. EPA 2027 kicks in soon and CAFE requirements for Class 2b / 3 vehicles require an 10% per year increase in fuel economy for 2030 – 2032 and 8% increases from 2033 – 2035
Increased emission standards for CARB kicked in for 2024.
I think GM (and I) are fine with it staying the same, inside and out. Keyed ignition, LCD screen, knobs for everything, it’s just beautiful.
You want to revive this thing and make it a smash hit? Throw in a transfer case and a front diff. Thats all. That’s all it needs. A factory honest-to-goodness 4×4 full size van WOULD SELL. Maybe get a little crazy and offer it with just 3 rows, two buckets in the front, 2 buckets in the middle, a 3 wide bench in the back, and leave the rest to cargo.
The only reason I can think that they haven’t already done this is the lost suburban and yukon sales.
They did do this already, kind of.
There was an AWD Express/Savanna for many years. We owned one. Not a full on shiftable 4×4, but it added some very valuable winter traction for a big RWD beast.
It went away when they discontinued the half-ton model, aka right before the van life thing started up.
Leave it to GM to release something cool ahead of its time, cancel said item, just in time for the market to want such a thing.
I think that’s a little harsh, the van life people aren’t building up AWD Expresses, they are converting vans to full 4×4 with lifts and big tires. In some sense they appeal to very different people.
But you’re right that GM doesn’t really deserve the benefit of the doubt on it.
People absolutely do build up the AWDs, especially if they are either short on funds, dont want the downtime, or are more honest with themselves about what they really need out of the van.
The Quigley setups afford you lower gears, a bit more stout front end parts, and of course, low range.
That’s surprisingly nice to hear, I only ever see glamour shots of the Quigley ones but if the AWD GM vans are getting some love, maybe it increases the tiny chances they will bring one back.
Maybe my parents’ old 2003 is still out there getting loved by someone.
I wish they’d build (built) one with true 4×4 from the factory, but the front suspension setup on the AWD vans was completely different and unique from the RWD ones where the AWD vans are basically unicorns (and so are the replacement parts to fix em).
That said at this point it feels like GM could just copy Quigley’s homework, it’s just all about supply chains and not making it cost your firstborn to option out.
For the love of all that is holy, how many different spellings of Savana are in this article? While the grassland is a savannah, the van is a Savana. Someone at GM didn’t know how to spell, and that’s ok.
Oh, and throw 3 rows of seats into that ZL1 and sign me up!
I think GM wanted to keep the name down to just including “van” in it, with the Vandura being it’s predecessor.
I seem to remember having a toy van back in my childhood that had printed on it’s plastic chassis “GMC Nirvana”, but I don’t recall GM having that model name…even though that would have followed the convention.
SaVANnah spelled right would still have had Van in it. Regardless of the reasoning, I have always hated it.
Invented spellings are more readily trademarkable than common English words.
Vandura was too cool of a name to replace. Just like, I’m glad Ford ditched “Econoline” for the 1999 model year to simplify to “E-series”, but what did it cost?
The Club Wagon. What a painful trade.
Remember that GM also spells gauges as GAGES in their cars.
Three rows of seats would require the longer version, the Savannna and not the Savana
GM has always been special. I think 3 rows could work in a Savanna, you could get 4 in a Savannna! Just add an N for every extra row. I like this idea! Who needs standard, L and XL?!
Yes! And sorry for the misspellings. Instead of one more final edit I wasted time on drawing that Pace Van version. Serves me right.
Time well spent haha. Though my favorite is definitely Jason about 3 magic mushrooms in. You know he can taste purple and hear lightwaves in that picture!
TBH, I think the Camaro front end just does not look right. The 1st EV version was my favorite.
It actually wasn’t supposed to look right- it was supposed to look kind of stupid and I think it succeeded. I agree that the EV nose does actually sort of work!
Stupid just for the sake of being stupid? Count me in!
“Weird Al” says Dare to be Stupid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Tp8mjIMbg
Put your head in the microwave and give yourself a tan!
It’s actually four rows in the base model (12 seats including the driver’s). Five for the extended (15 seats).
The Express ZL1 is perfection.
Just in time for a reboot of the reboot of the A-Team if you ask me.
I’m not gettin’ on that plane with that crazy fool, Hannibal!
GM should make a modernized electric G Van out of it.