Date:         Sun, 7 May 2000 23:05:15 -0700
Reply-To:     t <vbob@PRIMENET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         t <vbob@PRIMENET.COM>
Subject:      Re: Instant horsepower (Pinwheel)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Sorry Karl. I love driving my van, love looking in the back through the
rear view mirror and seeing what looks to me to be a living room, love
the memories of some of the things... nevermind. Anyway, I expect if you
take care of something, it will last... a long time. Not been my
experience with the van or VWs in general. I babied my 79 Rabbit, threw
a rod through the side of the block on the Jersey Turnpike. This enngine
in my van, 15,000 miles on the engine, no overheating, correct
antifreeze, and still gas pressurizing the coolant. Talk about
maintanace, you need to be a mechanic or rich to keep up with the work.
I don't mind now, but I don't know about the future.
My problem is I drive a Toyota pickup with the same number of miles on
it as the Van (127,000). Same treatment, 3000 mile oil changes, plugs
every 25000 or so (platinums), front brakes at 100000. So far, one small
radiator leak at 70,000 miles, Power steering and fan belt at 100k.
That's it. Needs the front bearings repacked. Could use shocks sometime
in the next year. No missing plastic, no tearing upholstry, no faded
paint, no upper ball joints going south, no head jobs, no gs tank leaks,
no adjusting the rear brakes because the circumfrence is now wrong
because of wear, nada...It runs, gets 25 MPG, passes emissions without
hiring a guru, and I never wonder if it will break down on the side of
the highway.

I love my VeeDub, but I stand by my statement.

tim



Karl Wolz wrote:
>
> Folks on this list tend to bash the vehicle they've chosen to drive for
> reliability issues.
>
> This is something I do not understand.  I've driven my vans a half million
> miles.  In that time I've had three heads leak, and no catastrophic
> failures.  I was stupid enough to run straight water instead of 50/50 in the
> first engine, which eroded the heads and the head studs (@ 120,000 or so).
> I've had a tranny start to shift poorly, and then decide not to go into
> third or fourth gears, as I recall.  This happened at around 225,000 miles.
> I've had an engine go 175,000 miles with no problems.  I pulled it in
> anticipation of a cross-country trip.  I could plug it back in and use it
> tomorrow if needed.
>
> On the other hand, I've had several Fords, a Mercedes Benz, and several
> other VWs and a Volvo, none of which lasted past 120,000 miles.  When
> finally gotten rid of, the doors did not close properly, windows rattled
> badly, the seats and carpeting were worn out, and big chunks of plastic were
> missing (like dash pieces, etc.), not to mention that most of the vehicles
> in question were finally gotten rid of due to non-functioning trannies (I
> don't believe I will ever buy another vehicle with an automatic tranny).
>
> Karl Wolz
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "t" <vbob@PRIMENET.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2000 9:53 PM
> Subject: Re: Instant horsepower (Pinwheel)
>
> > Ummm.... what reliability?
> >
> > Doktor Tim wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > >Because they are thinking about how unsafe their Vans are going to be
> > > >with all this new found horsepower?
> > >
> > > That new found hoursepower comes at the loss of old time reliability,
> > > typically.
> > >
> >
> > NOT the vanagon's strong suite in stock form.
> >
> > tim