I go to the Lake. I park my Westfalia. I go fishing or ride my bike. I burn Lunch or supper. I lay in a lawn chair. I count stars or mosquitos. I put my dishes out for the farrow cats to clean. I go to bed. What's exclusive about a vehicle with a bed? A 1960 and a 1992 do exactly the same for me....... I love fresh air and would not have AC unless they threw it in to make a sale. No value even to me. I've got all of my life to watch other people hurry, and its very entertaining. Stan
On Sat, 9 Mar 2002 18:51:49 -0800 "Loren A. Busch" <lbusch@IX.NETCOM.COM> writes: > This past December and early January I was looking for a replacement > for > my '85 Westy. I had come to certain conclusions as to what features > I > wanted, and the Eurovan Camper would have fit the bill just perfect, > all > the bells and whistles that I wanted, more power, all around newer > (implies reliability), etc. > First problem, may seem minor, but major to me, I know my travel > and > camping style after a lot of time and miles in my '85: The largest > storage area in the cabin is TOTALLY BLOCKED with the bed down!! I > tend > to travel with the bed down and also leave it down during the day > when > camping. The Eurovan setup would have been a major PITA. > Second, for what I carry and the way I carry it, there was NOT as > much > USABLE storage in the Eurovan as in the Vanagon. Without the > overhead > storage and the back seat storage in had been used to in the > Vanagon, I > would have had problems. Additionally, the arrangement of the tables > in > the Eurovan did not seem to be as convenient as the Vanagon. > Third was potential cost of repairs. Although this may have been > an > isolated case, three years ago I was looking at a Canadian Eurovan > conversion, (Open Road) '95 chassis I believe. At that time I had > a > friend that was a service writer at the local VW dealer that had > this > camper on the lot. He said that that particular van seemed to be > in > very good shape, but about six months before one of their customers > had > blown the auto tranny in a '95. IT HAD TAKEN THE DEALER OVER FOUR > MONTHS TO GET THE THING REPAIRED, AND HAD COST THE OWNER ALMOST > $6000!!! > The situation may be different in 2002, but it really made me > leary. > Fourth and last reason for passing on the Eurovan (A very clean, > low > milage '95) was dollars. From a reputable dealer, a '95 Erovan > camper > was at about $24,000. It had everything I wanted except the price. A > new > Eurovan Camper is over $40,000!! Hell, if I were in love with VW > chassis, I could buy a Rialta for for that price. There is a '97 > Rialta > sitting on an RV lot about two blocks from my house for $31,000. > I was able to find a low milage (95k) '90 Westy with almost > everything I > wanted for $11,500 and in very good condition. Two mechanics have > gone > through it (one before I bought it, the other when doing all the > maintenance stuff you do with a 'new' vehicle) and both found it in > very > good shape, only major item was tires. > I can add every possible bell and whistle, have all the work done by > the > highest priced shop in the country, buy a new engine if ever needed, > and > many, many gallons of gas for the better than $12,000 difference. > I don't think that there is a lot of evidence saying that one is > more > reliable than the other, Vanagon vs. Eurovan. Let's face it guys, > we > are driving vehicles that are at least 11 or more years old, and 80% > of > what I see discussed on the list here is in regard to 15 to 20 year > old > vehicles. The basic, well maintained Vanagon (my old '85) proved to > be > a very reliable and trustworthy vehicle for me. 90% of the 50k I put > on > it were at highway speeds or climbing mountains and mountain > passes. > (Cooling system problems that I had were man-made, not the Vanagons > fault.) Never missed a stroke, got me where I was going and back > every > time. We'll see how the Eurovans hold up. Their history is only > in > about the second chapter. > > BTW, when sitting in the 'cabin' of a Erovan Camper, there seems to > be > more room than in a Vanagon Westy, my subjective view. But that is > empty space that is hard to make use of. If you want a lot of room > in > front of you when you sit down, stay home and drive the Lazy Boy!! > > Loren A. Busch > I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I > am > not sure that you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. > > *********************** > ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. |
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