That’s not a typo in the name of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Stepwgn; that’s actually how Honda named it. Let’s see if the price of this privately-imported mini-camper also looks like a mistake.
Many comments on yesterday’s 2000 Ford F-150 Stake Bed noted its utility and money-making ability. The downside of having such a helpful truck is never having a free weekend at month’s end, as friends are all begging for help moving heavy stuff. Still, that’s not too big a price to pay. Neither too was the $4,700 asked to buy the truck, as evidenced by the massive 88 percent Nice Price win it received.
Today’s 1998 Honda Stepwgn Field Deck would be less beneficial for renter relocation, but on the plus side, it offers sleeping quarters, making a vacation home unnecessary.
Honda introduced the Stepwgn in Japan for the 1996 model year. Based on the contemporary Civic platform, it filled the niche of the traditional minivan with a single sliding rear door on the curb (in this case, right) side and up to eight seats. This was at a time when Honda’s better-known minivan, the Odyssey, featured four swinging doors and only up to seven seats.
In 1998, Honda took a page from the VW playbook and introduced the Weekender-like Field Deck as a Stepwgn option. Changes to the standard van included a fold-out table in the rear of the cabin and a pop-up top with a roof-mounted bed. The Field Deck edition ended with the Stepwgn’s redesign in 2001, but Honda still sells a version of the standard model to this very day.
All of those first-generation Stepwgns were FWD, featuring a 2.0-liter, 123 horsepower B20B four, and a four-speed automatic. Honda never deemed the model worthy of federalizing for the U.S. market, but thanks to the 25-year rule, a number can now be found on offer from private importers.
That’s just how this one found its way here, offered by a company called Motorcycle Warehouse, Inc., which specializes in bringing older JDM cars and trucks to the U.S. Due to its RHD layout, the Portland, Oregon-based reseller humorously claims that the Stepwgn would be suitable for postal delivery. It makes you wonder if the USPS ever even considered old Japanese trucks and vans as a replacement for its aging fleet of mail carriers. The seller doesn’t suggest what a postal carrier might do with the Field Deck’s sleeping arrangements, and honestly, as long as I get my mail on time, I don’t want to know.
For the rest of us, the van is claimed to be in good condition and to have 131,000 miles on the books. Based on the plethora of stickers and decals festooning the windows and passenger door, it must have led an exciting life while accumulating those miles.
Aesthetically, the appliance-white paint and black-painted steel wheels make the van look a bit dull and institutional, so the stickers do add some flair. The Volvo-esque crazy-tall tail lamps help as well.
In the cabin, things are tidy and clean if backward for our driving environment. The automatic helps as neophyte right-handers won’t need to create a unique muscle memory for left-hand manual shifting. A new Kenwood iPad-like stereo head unit befouls the dash, but there are drawable curtains all around so that shame can be hidden from view when the van is parked.
The title is clean, and aside from places like California, where the State’s smog rules prohibit registration without expensive mods, it can likely be driven and enjoyed wherever one wants. The asking price for that enjoyment is $9,950.
What do you think about this oddball weekender van and that price? Does that seem fair, given its uniqueness and versatility? Or, for asking that much, can this JDM van GTFO?
You decide!
Seattle, Washington, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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