I, too, had two Previas and man, oh, man do I miss my "Eggs"!!! Hands down the most reliable, bulletproof travel mobile I've ever owned!!! I just yesterday traded in my 2004 XLE AWD Sienna for a 2015 Sienna Limited AWD, but I would ditch all the touch screen tech, bells, & whistles for another Previa.
My first was a 1991 Opal White Pearl All-Trac LE that I purchased used in 1996 at 72,000 miles. I immediately took out middle row bench seat and turned it into a touring camper van with a platform bed and storage. As a young woman, I safely traveled on my own all over the country in it, sleeping at campgrounds and Flying Js. Mid-body engine, fantastic turning radius, big ass seat. When I was with a band, we used the rear fold down seats and loaded all the gear between (great way to separate feuding musicians). I regularly got 22 MPG (and back then gas was still reliably .99-1.05 a gallon!) and never had to to a thing other than change the oil and do regular maintenance. The only drawback, as others have mentioned, is that the air conditioner never worked well (if at all). Unfortunately, at about 300k miles, the head gasket cracked and though I can't say for certain, I probably slacked on changing the coolant somewhere in there. RIP my Original Egg!
Onto the Red Egg! 1997 LE All-Trac. Supercharged engine, swivel 2nd row captains chairs, air conditioning that worked! I bought it sight unseen in 2001 off Ebay from a family 600 miles away from where I was living at the time. It had 63k miles (if I am remembering correctly) and had been ignored for a while. It immediately needed new brakes, belts, a battery, plugs, etc, but it was in my price range and I eventually got it up to snuff. That was my beloved travel mobile for six solid years, taking me from Washington state to Florida, Maine to San Diego. By then, I had the home conversion set up down pat and it was a really comfortable camper van (perfectly flat floor for mods). When I finally settled down, it became our lab's mobile crate and she loved the platform bed as her own (she really loved to sit in that flat space between the front seats and look out the windshield as I drove).
At about 250k miles, it started to have little things start to pop here and there (seals, oil leak behind the engine, etc) that I think were due to the neglect it suffered early in it's life. When I put it up on Craigslist, I immediately had a dozen calls, but ended up selling it under asking price to a guy who gave me a sob story about needing to have a family vehicle, as he was trying to keep custody of his kids and their mom had a Previa. The next day he turned around and listed it back on Craigslist for $1500. more than I had sold it to him. I really regret letting that Previa go instead of nursing it along, especially to that guy!
I'll have to dig up some photos. They would all be film prints!
(but it never froze ;D)
