{"id":18851,"date":"2026-09-01T19:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/?p=18851"},"modified":"2026-09-01T07:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:44:09","slug":"cheap-different-vehicle-work-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/cheap-different-vehicle-work-van\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Plumber in Europe Can Buy a Small Work Van. America Killed All Three of Its Own, and Now Ram Is Bringing One Back as a Rebadged Fiat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Americans have been waiting for more cheap vehicles. As the average price of a new car continues rising, we have watched with envy as other countries get cheap options from China, from cute and compact EVs to aggressive sports cars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the Trump Administration continuing to push for massive tariffs (despite a ruling that the previous tariffs were unconstitutional), the United States has been missing out on many affordable, versatile models.<\/p>\n

However, we’ve\u00a0finally gotten a cheap vehicle outside<\/em> the rapidly\u00a0growing affordable pickup category<\/a>. But no, it’s not a cute, compact car or a sports car.<\/p>\n

It’s a van. A commercial van.<\/p>\n

The ProMaster City is… A van. For work<\/h2>\n

Ram has announced the 2027 Ram ProMaster City, a new van. This cargo van offers five or eight-passenger interiors, making it great for families with small businesses or trade services. The rows of seats are removable when you need to haul more cargo.<\/p>\n

The Ram ProMaster City has a 1.6-liter turbo-four engine, an eight-speed automatic transmission, the ability to tow up to 5,000 pounds, and a simple exterior. Yeah, it’s nothing impressive. But it starts at $44,195. It’s not cheap<\/em> cheap, but it’s cheap compared to most SUVs out there.<\/p>\n

Yeah, sorry, it’s just not sexy.<\/p>\n

The 2027 has a complete redesign that U.S. customers haven’t seen before.\u00a0 It’s a rebrand of the Fiat Scudo, giving it a sleek, nondescript appearance.\u00a0The infotainment and connectivity are equally\u00a0unexciting. <\/em>It’s a van, people. A van for work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So yeah… We’re not getting the cool Chinese EVs we’ve been desperately watching from afar. You know, the ones that can jump or reach the highest top speed for a production car in history. We’re not even getting a cheap sports car… That’s going to the UK instead<\/a>. No, we’re getting a van. A van that looks like it does deliveries for some start-up that won’t be around in a few months. Because it does<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But America needs vans, actually<\/h2>\n

Compared to Europe, where a compact van rolls off the line for practically every neighborhood plumber, American buyers are stuck choosing from a surprisingly short list. Ford’s Transit, Ram’s ProMaster, and Mercedes-Benz’s Sprinter make up almost the entire commercial van conversation here, and smaller options have been quietly disappearing. The Nissan NV cargo van got discontinued back in 2021, and Ford and Ram both pulled the plug on their compact Transit Connect and ProMaster City models as sales slid, leaving American buyers with mostly full-size vans and not much in between. Europe never had that problem, since dense cities and narrow streets kept demand for smaller vans alive long after Americans decided bigger was better.<\/p>\n

Part of the answer comes down to how differently American businesses actually use these vans. The roughly 178,000 commercial vans sold in the U.S. this year<\/a> are dominated by last-mile delivery and service fleets, and those buyers make decisions based on total cost of ownership and upfit compatibility rather than which van feels the nicest to drive. That’s a big reason Ford’s V6-powered Transit outsells the more refined Sprinter by a wide margin. In 2025, Ford moved nearly eight times as many Transits as Mercedes did Sprinters, and that gap has held steady into 2026. Fleet buyers don’t care that the Sprinter has a nicer cabin. They care about parts availability, repair costs, and whether their local dealer can turn a van around fast, and Ford wins that fight easily in America.<\/p>\n

The other piece is that building vans for the U.S. means building for American roads and American driveways, and that’s expensive to justify at scale. Diesel engines that make sense for a European city full of narrow lanes and short trips don’t always pencil out here, where fuel costs and duty cycles vary wildly by region, which is part of why gas engines dominate for lower-mileage operations. Add in the cost of certifying multiple wheelbases, roof heights, and drivetrain options for a market that’s a fraction the size of Europe’s, and it makes sense that automakers concentrate their lineup on fewer, bigger vans rather than flooding the market with variety. It’s less about American drivers not wanting vans and more about automakers deciding which vans are actually worth building for a market this particular.<\/p>\n

What about minivans?<\/h2>\n

Frankly, Americans think vans are for soccer moms and airport shuttles, full stop. There’s truth to that image problem, but the real story is more about math<\/em> than mall parking lots. By 2023, the minivan market had shrunk from 1.4 million units sold in 2000 to just 237,000, a genuine collapse for a segment that once ruled family transportation. Automakers didn’t kill the van because people stopped needing the space. They killed it because SUVs and crossovers make more money per unit, and once the industry chased that margin, it never really looked back. A three-row crossover with a van’s practicality and none of the stigma was simply an easier sell.
\nSubstack<\/p>\n

The passenger van side of the market shrank even further for a blunter reason: there just aren’t many left to sell. Ford discontinued the old-school Econoline-style full-size van years ago, and what remains on that end of the spectrum skews commercial, built for plumbers and delivery fleets rather than families packing up for a road trip. Even Volkswagen’s attempt to bring back van culture with the electric ID. Buzz hit turbulence, with production paused for the 2026 model year over range and pricing concerns before a planned return in 2027.<\/p>\n

When even a company built its whole reputation on vans struggles to make the math work in America, that tells you something about how thin the margins really are here.<\/p>\n

And yet, the funniest part of this story is that minivans are quietly having a moment again. Thanks, Millennial dads!<\/a> Minivan sales rose 21% in 2025 to nearly 394,000 units, while the overall market grew only 2%, and the segment is pulling in buyers who usually gravitate toward trucks, especially men around 40. Part of that comes down to price. Minivans are less expensive while offering a better package for what many customers actually need compared to today’s popular three-row crossovers.<\/p>\n

And we’re sick of those SUVs. Give us something different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Americans have been waiting for more cheap vehicles. As the average price of a new car continues rising, we have … <\/p>\n

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