# ID a funny looking Vehicle
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 11, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360 "2007-10-11T17:30:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/1 "2007-10-11T17:30:17Z")
Okay. I was oni-95 in Providence, RI this morning and camera phoned this bizarre vehicle, but it wasn’t stored, so I’m reduced to a desciption. I’ll do the best I can.
Picture something like a small passenger shuttle, like ar the airport. Take away all passenger windows. Make it white and slightly bulbous. It had small rounded red lights around the back of it, which was flat, white and windowless. I believe there was a word sort of stamped into the back of it, but I cannot remember what it said.
Sorry for the limited description. If you’ve ever seen one of these, it would most likely cause you to say “WTF is THAT thing?”
Thanks in advance. Let me know if I can better descibe anything about it.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/2 "2007-10-11T17:40:57Z")
Was it a [SmartCar](http://www.ambientinformatics.com/going_2004/img/2004-09-10_GOING%20026_Smartcar01_lg.jpg) perhaps?
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/3 "2007-10-11T17:41:30Z")
Was it a solar car: [http://www.udel.edu/igert/pvcdrom/MANUFACT/SOLARCAR.JPG](http://www.udel.edu/igert/pvcdrom/MANUFACT/SOLARCAR.JPG)
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### Author:  [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/4 "2007-10-11T17:46:07Z")
Def not a SmartCar. It was big. Seriously like the size of a smaller shuttle bus. The bulbous part extended beyond the usual demensions of a shuttle.
The Solar Car would give rise to a WTF from me, but it wasn’t that weird looking. All white. And very solid. No windows except for the front, which I didn’t get a good look at, but I think was similar to the front of a basic Ford-ish shuttle. Maybe slightly more futuristic looking.
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### Author:  [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/5 "2007-10-11T17:47:41Z")
It almost looked like it could’ve housed some sort of time and light sensitive materials. It looked sealed and important. Maybe something cryo.
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/6 "2007-10-11T17:50:52Z")
So it was more like a van?
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/7 "2007-10-11T17:53:23Z")
Was it a gourmet milk truck?
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### Author:  [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/8 "2007-10-11T18:03:40Z")
The cargo van version of the [Dodge Sprinter](http://www.dodge.ca/en/sprinter/index.html) perhaps?
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/9 "2007-10-11T18:29:38Z")
Was it the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man standing on a car?
> **[Stay Puft Marshmallow Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay_Puft_Marshmallow_Man)**
>
> The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is a character from the Ghostbusters franchise, who sometimes appears as a giant, lumbering and paranormal monster. He first appears in the 1984 Ghostbusters film as a logo on a bag of marshmallows in Dana Barrett's apartment, on an advertisement on a building near the Ghostbusters' headquarters, and finally as the physical manifestation and form of the apocalyptic Sumerian deity Gozer.
> Gozer returns in this form multiple times; however, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow M...
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### Author:  [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/10 "2007-10-11T18:41:34Z")
Yes, more like a van. No to the Sprinter. Jury’s out on Stay Puft.
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### Author:  [@Skipper\_Too](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skipper_Too)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/11 "2007-10-11T18:53:51Z")
Was it a Panel version of the Chevy [HHR](http://www.chevrolet.com/hhr/) ?
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### Author:  [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/12 "2007-10-11T18:58:18Z")
Not an HHR. Bigger. Like a short bus. Maybe bigger. All white. I think the closest so far would be the gourmet milk truck. It seriously did look like what you might imagine one to look.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/13 "2007-10-11T19:00:13Z")
Your description sounds like a typical service truck or van, like the one shown [here](http://www.atmctr.com/support.htm). If it was something more unusual, what exactly made it unusual?
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/14 "2007-10-11T19:05:06Z")
Was it a delivery van made by [UniCell](http://www.unicell.com/)? Some of theirs are rather bulbous, especially the [Aerocell SRW](http://www.unicell.com/bodies/srw.html).
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### Author:  [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/15 "2007-10-11T19:18:13Z")
Scr4 and Sunspace, much like your examples, but it almost looked rounded. No seams. And the little round lights in the back were uniquely arranged. And I believe on the top and bottom, in a row. Damn my camera-phone. Imagine your examples, but like 15 years from now.
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### Author:  [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/16 "2007-10-11T19:20:24Z")
Scr4 and Sunspace, much like your examples, but it almost looked rounded. No seams. And the little round lights in the back were uniquely arranged. And I believe on the top and bottom, in a row. Damn my camera-phone. Imagine your examples, but like 15 years from now. Looking further, it may have been that Aerocell SRW. The back of it did look like that.
Sunspace, I think you’ve pegged it. What the hell is in that thing? Kidneys? Corneas?
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/17 "2007-10-11T21:14:03Z")
[QUOTE=SharkB8]
Sunspace, I think you’ve pegged it. What the hell is in that thing? Kidneys? Corneas?
[/QUOTE]
It’s just a small delivery van. Unicell is based in Toronto, so I see their vans every day. The first time I saw an Aerocell SRW, I has the same reaction you did: “WTH was _that_?” Even now, I think they’re kind of cool.
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-a-funny-looking-vehicle/422360/18 "2007-10-11T21:53:19Z")
What did the fron end look like? (…or did you not see it from that angle?)