Ever since I was a wee 7th grader and saw a burgundy Toyota Previa on a trip to Arizona, I have been obsessed with the egg-shaped minivan. Of course, I’ve loved and desired plenty of other cars in my lifetime since then, but somehow the Previa always rose to the top of the list. I even had one on a giant poster on my college dorm room wall. Its combination of reliable engineering, ridiculous powertrain options — you could have a mid-engined AWD supercharged minivan, or perhaps RWD N/A manual is more your style — and unmistakably eggy design captured my car nerd heart in a way that no other vehicle has.
In June 2024, after 12 years of yearning, I finally had adult money and the perfect listing came up on Facebook Marketplace. A white 1992 Previa DX, rear-wheel drive and manual, which was my biggest requirement to purchase one. Not only was the 5-speed an exceedingly rare Previa spec, but the condition of the van was practically unheard of in my home base of New England. She was a California car, only driven over to Massachusetts in 2019 to be the family’s Cape Cod runabout, and winterized and parked each year so she never saw a salty road. At only 201,000 miles and $1,200, I scooped her up immediately.
I named her “Ola,” which means “egg” in Latvian (her previous owners’ nationality) and coincidentally also was my late grandmother’s name. Two seasons of driving and 26,000 more miles later, she’s remained an astoundingly reliable partner. My process of fixing her up and modifying her has been documented in a YouTube series that has now amassed over 86,000 total views, as well as hundreds of thousands on TikTok and Instagram.
There’s nothing I love more about the car community than being able to share my enthusiasm about unique cars with like-minded individuals, or teaching people something new if they’ve never heard of a Previa before. This is why, when I heard that there was a Previa-specific cruise happening on the complete opposite side of the country, I was more than a little bit jealous of the attendees. Over a dozen Previas all together, cruising through the absolutely stunning mountains of Washington!
It’s unlikely anything of that scale could happen near me, simply due to the rarity of Previas on this coast. Our winters are so tough, and our roads so salted, that most cars from the 90s and early 00s succumbed long ago to rotted frames and body panel holes, Previas being no exception. Two years of the cruise came and went, and I was thrilled (and green with envy) whenever photos were posted online. I’d known the event’s host, Samay, for many years just through Previa-related social media — he’s known as the “Previa Legend” for good reason. Samay runs a Previa-specific shop near Seattle and has been fixing the vans for over 20 years, acquiring many for himself in the process. If there’s a job to be done on a Previa, either Samay can do it, or it’s not possible. It made perfect sense to him to create an event like this.
An Irresistible Offer And A Rocky Start
One day in October 2025, after I shared one of Samay’s posts to my Instagram story from his second cruise, he responded and said: “Next year you come and join. I’ll give you and your boyfriend a van to drive to Leavenworth.” This was quite possibly one of the most generous things anyone’s ever offered to me, and I’d never even met the man. But Previa diehards are very unique people, so it’s no surprise they’d be uniquely kind too. I’m not one to turn down a once-in-a-lifetime offer like that. The biggest barrier was airfare, coming in at around $400+ for a two-person round trip. I waited several months as prices fluctuated, determined to get a good rate with my Google price notifications turned on. Finally, when two tickets came up in the $300s, I made the purchase. And four months later, departure day finally arrived. Samay said our Previa would be waiting for us at his shop whenever we got there.
At first I feared we may not even get to Washington at all — the flight was delayed several times and was now scheduled for departure at 11:30 pm instead of 7:30 pm. We also saw another Boston-to-Seattle flight that had been scheduled for 10 am and still hadn’t departed at 9 pm, and we worried they’d both be canceled. We eventually boarded the plane at 11:30 pm, arriving around 3 am Seattle time. Oh well — anything for Previas.
Thankfully, my boyfriend Jacob is the most supportive and kind boyfriend in the world, as I am and always have been a wreck of anxiety when flying. Sometimes I can push through it and relax, but I conveniently forgot at home my special anxiety meds that were prescribed just for this day, so I ended up making good use of one of the airsickness bags. We both tried our best to get some rest on the plane, and after a safe landing, we unsuccessfully searched for any hotels still booking.
Deciding it would make more sense to just head to our waiting loaner Previa and sleep there, Jacob and I got a $90 Uber ride to Samay’s shop in Lynnwood and arrived around 4 am. There she was: a beautiful burgundy red Previa All-Trac waiting for us so we could finally climb inside and get some sleep. This was also no ordinary van he’d left for us — it was Samay’s first Previa ever, purchased used in 2001 and now showing 741,000 miles on the odometer. Samay had also kindly removed the rear two seat rows and put in an air mattress for us, since the plan was to camp in the Previas the following night after the cruise. Jacob and I laid some spare jackets over ourselves as a makeshift blanket and got some final hours of rest before the big day.
Almost Two Cartons’ Worth Of Eggs
The next morning — well, that same morning, I suppose — we headed out around 7 since it was too chilly to sleep comfortably anymore with our lack of blanket preparation. Amusingly, since I’d never driven an automatic Previa before this day, I went for the phantom clutch pedal and nonexistent floor shifter a few times before getting into the groove of using the brake and automatic column shifter. We hit an IHOP down the street from the meetup spot and then finally made our way over to the meetup a little after 9 am. We rounded a corner down to a large grocery store parking lot, and then — Previas! A whole parking row full of them! So many, in fact, that there wasn’t another space for ours and we had to go in a different row. I had never seen more than three Previas at once, and now here in front of me I counted thirteen. When we parked and began walking around to look at them, still more continued to roll in. I was filled with childlike glee. It felt like all of my years of immense Previa enthusiasm were meant to culminate at this moment.
I counted three manual Previas too, including the particularly elusive manual All-Trac model. Samay’s custom-built extended Previa camper was there as well, which is pretty legendary in the community, so it was surreal to finally see it in person. Aside from a plexiglass window that had to be adhered with black Gorilla tape because it was a custom size, you truly wouldn’t be able to tell that it was made out of two Previas spliced together by hand.
At this first meetup point, I was also able to reunite with a friend I knew through my Miata club back home, who had since moved out to Washington in his HiAce, as well as meet a friend from social media that I knew through a shared enthusiasm for the GM EV1. I exchanged gifts with both of them, and it was a great collision of worlds.
Finally, Samay called us all together for a group meeting. He thanked everyone for coming out — 21 Previas and one HiAce was the final count — and highlighted people who’d come particularly far for the event: myself, although I kind of cheated by flying, and another Previa enthusiast who’d driven all the way from Indiana. There were also attendees from California and Utah, no small feat considering how large the states are on that side of the country. Samay gifted me a Previa Legend hoodie with a graphic of the stretch Previa on it, and another attendee handed out gorgeously made leather keychains with a burnt-in graphic of a Previa and the event name. Then, finally, we all set off for the cruise.
