After joining a VW Van club and meeting lots of actual Vanagon owners in person I came to a conclusion which goes like this: Happy Vanagon owners fall into 3 categories: 1. Those who spend LOTS of time and energy working on them and understanding them to make them reliable. 2. Those who spend LOTS of money paying someone to make their vanagon reliable. 3. Those who are very lucky and have very few problems with their vanagons (very rare). If you dont fall into one of these 3 categories you live in "Vanagon Hell". Without actally meeting Vanagon owners in person (like on this list) it can be really hard to determine how much time and/or money they spend on this "hobby". It ticks me off when someone writes to the list asking about advice on buying their first vanagon and someone who owns several vanagons and knows all their ins and outs and designs aircraft parts for a living writes them back saying what a great vehicle they are and how trouble free they are. Bottom line is its not a vehicle for the layperson who wants to travel on the cheap like many of us thought when we bought these vans. Its more of a hobby for technically skilled and financially healthy persons. Nothing wrong with that, just everyone please stop giving the average joe the impression that these things just need a little TLC and they're good to go. Thanks, Andrew Fox 86 Westy |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.