Date:         Mon, 31 Jul 2000 21:43:05 -0700
Reply-To:     "Tom L. Neal" <jneal@netcom.com>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Tom L. Neal" <jneal@netcom.com>
Subject:      One of the last 6 Vanagons ever made
In-Reply-To:  <39863056.D5D8C2BC@hiwaay.net>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

We "camped" at an RV park in McCloud, CA, last weekend so we could ride
the dinner train around the flank of Mt. Shasta. A beautiful white Westie
camped near us with the owners attending the Square Dance and Lumberjack
weekend festivities.  The owner picked it up in Frankfurt in 1991 and
believed it to be one of last 6 Vanagons built.  He and his wife took it
back to Europe once in the course of piling up 169,000 miles "living" in
it for the equivalent of about 2 years.

They have customized the surfaces substantially.  Side step rail added.
Paper roll/plate/napkin/magazines/etc holders here and there.  Dashboard
unit. Pretty interesting.

He indicated it had been quite reliable.  Delving further, the trannie had
failed in Pennsylvania, and a water pump almost died in Spain.  But the
van was maintained by a German mechanic at Tillman Motors in Santa Rosa
who really knows what he's doing, which is the key for these machines.

Cheers, Tom Neal '87 Syncro