Hi everyone!
I recently moved to New York City (Manhattan) and am looking at changing out my '98 Tacoma for a used TC Cargo, as I'd like to keep mountain bikes, surfboards, and the occasional dirtbike in the van, whereas they'd get stolen out of the pickup very quickly. I also do a lot of my own vehicle maintenance and love having storage for tools and the like.
To that end, I've been trying to find former workmen's vans that have already built out the interior with shelves, cupboards, tie-down points, etc. Even better would be to find a van that's already beat up cosmetically, as NYC is not kind to vehicles. However, searching cargurus, autotrader, etc. this doesn't seem to be a filter that can be applied.
Has anyone had similar purchase criteria, and how did you find your perfect (pre-built) TC?
As well, for those driving cargo vans, if you'd like to also carry passengers occasionally, is that as simple as buying the middle bench and installing it when needed? Or are there rules, regulations, or modifications like passenger window access, seatbelt mounting points, and so on where it would be better to buy the TC Wagon and modify it for my cargo needs? Since these all seem to come over in the Wagon configuration and are then converted to Cargo, I would hope it would be simple, but have a suspicion that it's not.
Thanks in advance for the help!