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Comment by somehnacct3757 | Hacker News Reader

The secret behind the van life influencers is that a nice loadout is easily six figures and they are rich people 'slumming it' for fun.

While the price point on this trim is high compared to base, they are just capturing some of the value previously going to aftermarket body shops.

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I've seen a lot of pretty nice builds that were in the low to mid 5 figures, but those are generally conversions done by an owner rather than a shop and aren't starting with a brand new vehicle.

Yeah if the car manufacturers are gonna start selling trims that do all the really scary stuff for you (like cutting a hole in the roof), and basically include that work as part of the car financing, it should lower the difficulty of a DIY conversion and make it a more reasonable option.

I think the bigger deal is that these are using stronger parts that are better rated for the really rough roads that these get taken on.

I doubt most DIYers are buying a new vehicles to convert. This will probably be sold directly to professional converters.

Actually a good number of us DIY folks do buy these new. We can do a conversion, live in it a couple years and then flip it when we're ready to do another build for nice profit. I bought a brand new AWD transit two years back and cut two 14" vent holes in the roof on day 2 of ownership. The used market is just wild enough to make buying new make sense, and clean ownership history makes resale easier. There are lots of people doing what I do.

Are they really using stronger parts? I haven't seen what is beefed up in any brochures, articles or press releases.

They mention a 3.5 inch lift, and some 30 inch tires. That's all I can find. Can't find a single other thing that makes this "off road" worthy other than a bunch of useless black cladding.

This is probably as beefed up as an AWD Rav4 is vs a FWD Rav4.

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