Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 13:37:14 -0700
Reply-To: jbrush@AROS.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Brush <jbrush@AROS.NET>
Subject: Re: Using American engines for Vanagon swap - why the heck not? -
Long
In-Reply-To: <004201c1d1dd$f61a9780$b4003e04@vz.dsl.genuity.net>
>a car and had to have something quick. Besides the guy at the Bone Yard
>told me most Vanagon owners have a second more reliable vehicle. He
>drives a T-Bird to work.
One man's opinion. :(
>tired of worrying about making it home if I drove it somewhere. Every
>time I fixed one problem some other problem would develop.
<snip>
>front of my house waiting for me to fix it (the weather has been cold and
>windy here in So Cal, believe it or not).
>I have been on this list for about a month and a half. I have read posts
>from people with similar problems, fix it and then something else breaks.
>People taking a trip (or even afraid to take a trip) and then complaining
>about some sort of mechanical problem they encountered on the way home or
>sometimes barely making it home. People stuck in places like Northern
>California or Texas because their Vanagons broke down.
Walter,
This list is here to help people who have problems. You won't find too
many postings from people without troubles. There are countless numbers of
Vanagons out here running like the proverbial clock, (my 81 is one of
them) but you won't read much about them in this group. Sometimes a trip
report validates the reliability of the Van, but if you are going to use
what you read here to decide if your Vanagon can be trusted, you may as
well just burn that thing to the ground, and get used the Chevy Van. These
great folks are here to help people with trouble, what do you expect to
find except people asking for help?
If you want an idea of the health of the general population, and you go to
the doctor's office or the hospital, you will come away thinking that
everyone is sick and in need of surgery. If you hang out at the
unemployment office, you will soon figure that everyone is out of work.
For every person who has gone to Texas and had problems, there are a
thousand times that number who have gone, and come back home with no
difficulty.
If there was a newsgroup for the Chevy Astrovan, it would be mostly filled
with people needing help fixing this and repairing that, and your opinion
of the vehicle might be altogether different.
Just something to consider.
Regards from Utah,
John