The death of the three-box sedan body style has been well documented. Consumers across the board seem to gravitate towards owning SUV or SUV-esque vehicles, and that trend has spread quite rapidly toward the luxury car sector. For many, the stately silhouette of an S-Class no longer holds the pull it once did now that you could have a GLS instead — and that extends across a ride gamut of models. But while the phenomenon of finding luxury vehicles that aren’t sedans may be a fairly recent occurrence in the west, move east, and you’ll find that sedans have been fighting their own battle for years. Their opponent? Vans.
If you think about it, having a van as a luxobarge alternative is a pretty well-thought idea — especially if you’re going to be spending most of your time in the rear quarters. A van gives you a roomier cabin with more legroom, offers additional seating flexibility to hold business meetings on the go, and — as with the curtains installed to this specimen — could give you the ability to sleep on the go, or, er, get up to other shenanigans incognito.
Read: Toyota Hiace Reverse Restomod By FlexDream Makes Us Want To Move To Japan
Listed on Bring A Trailer and located in New Jersey, this 1994 Toyota HiAce Super Custom Living Saloon EX (breathe) lives up to its name by facilitating “living” thanks to seats that can be folded to make up a bed. How exactly it constitutes a saloon (sedan in British parlance) is anyone’s guess, but one could infer that the marketers in the van department were indeed trying to offer up an alternative to those who’d normally consider a four-door car. After all, in Japan, there existed the Nissan Sunny Super Saloon and Toyota Carina Select Saloon — both popular three-box sedans.
The Toyota HiAce has been a bastion of the passenger and cargo van world. Toyota’s reputation for reliability, coupled with genuine load and people lugging chops, means that HiAce (pronounced high-ace) has been a byword for motorized transport in multiple nations. This example is of a fourth-generation HiAce, which ditched the square looks of its predecessor for a more rounded aesthetic. The color scheme is a bit beige ‘n’ brown inside and out, but there’s a certain level of nineties charm to be found.
Besides, living possibilities aside, this Toyota HiAce is fairly loaded for anything approaching three decades in age. It features soft-close doors, three separate sunroofs, and separate air conditioning for the front and rear. The curtains are electrically operated, and there’s a period CleanAce Air Purifier to keep everything smelling fresh. It’s a little harder to get excited about the powerplant, a 3.0-liter turbodiesel with just 130 hp and 212 lb-ft of torque, but there’s little doubt it’s enough for this Living Saloon to get out of its own way.
Could this flat-nosed van be your ticket to JDM glamping, or would you need something a bit more special to embrace “van life?” Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how it fares as bids close on Tuesday.
