Had a wreck - Best Vehicle Car or Van for Snack Box Vending

[locussst]

I had a wreck this morning in my car; not while servicing boxes but while commuting to my 9-5.  Since it is a 2009 Kia Spectra and cost to repair would be almost as much as I paid for it a year ago, I decided to sell it and get a vehicle more suitable for vending.  I have a good driving record and it's my first wreck in almost 20 years of driving.  I have a few questions:

1. What is the best vehicle for snack box/mint box servicing? (i.e. low commercial insurance rates, safe, plenty of room for boxes, and good value for the money)

2. What is a good insurance carrier for getting car insurance that will cover a wreck if I was ever servicing boxes?  Do you use your vehicle for servicing boxes for personal use?  If so, do you use the same insurance carrier and how does this work if you get in an accident driving for personal use?

3. Any other advice.

Feel like this is a good opportunity for me to get a good vehicle for servicing the boxes - will almost certainly buy used.

[orsd]

Minivan, preferably Japanese.

Literally no style but blends in, is great for commuting, great for servicing (lots of room), good on gas, cheap to maintain, reliable.

[AngryChris]

I did not service mint boxes but I did snack boxes (LSS chips, cookies, some candy, etc..).  I used my scion xB with the seats folded down to service everything.  It was a little tight but it worked.  However, a minivan would have man it far easier.  The downfall to *some* minivans is that their gas mileage isn't as good as a hatchback car, and that can dig into your profits a little but not too much.  Having the space to work quickly is far better than saving a few dollars on fuel if you ask me.. especially if you can get more done in one day.  So.. anything at least as big as a hatchback and no bigger than a minivan is what you want.  Of course, either vehicle will go anywhere and park anywhere.  My xB was nice because I could maneuver easier than a minivan would.. but it really isn't that much of a difference lol.

Go with a minivan.  You can find them all day long for cheap and they can be repaired anywhere as long as you get a reliable model.  A toyota sienna or honda odyssey are very good models but they hold their resale value so they can be expensive to get even used.  Dodge caravans are very common too and sell fairly cheap but inferior to the former models I mentioned if you ask me.  I wouldn't bother with a chevy minivan though.  Not the older stuff.

[orsd]

Older GM minivans are really frikkin bad.

I had the Pontiac version, the only saving grace was the 3800 v6 under the hood.

Everything else was crap, trans slipped, interior did typical GM interior things (fall apart). And it had a notoriously weak structure, cab area would fold up in a wreck.

There is a reasons domestics are dirt cheap, it’s cause they suck.

Kias and Nissans and Mazda’s are hit and miss, gotta research that particular year.

Only thing to watch out for on Honda’s is the the trans, certain years had lots of issues (mid 2000’s mostly).

 

[locussst]

Update: I went with a Toyota RAV4.  Not quite as roomy as the minivans suggested, but still a lot more space than what I had and more fun to drive.