@djsundog @gdkar my uncle, whose name actually is Van, owned a van something like this, but it was red.
Uncle Van's van had tinted windows. And shag carpet on the interior walls and ceiling. And nobody at all ever thought it was creepy.
His son's first car was a black C3 Corvette. I do believe he spent more time fixing it and "upgrading" it than driving it (which I think was mostly to take girls on dates).
The 1970s were fantastically ludicrous.
my dad's first car in England in 1978 was a Mini van like this (the tax was cheaper) - if my mum was in the front seat I'd sit in the back on a spare wheel, which likely was against multiple laws - I remember helping him wash it, and was taught how to set the manual choke then it was cold.
The VW Polo (80% of a Golf, not sold in USA) I bought last year as a 1st car is 1,5 times the power and has luxuries like automatic transmission and multimedia playback >>
Dad was often working on it (replacing sparkplugs, patching up rust etc) -
when my mum was expecting my sister she persuaded him to sell it for a small Japanese car with a 3 cylinder engine - more reliable but I've quite forgotten what that was, it didn't have the character of the Mini (although the new ones don't appeal to me)...