Date:         Sun, 13 Jul 2003 07:43:32 -0700
Reply-To:     "Douglas L. Urner" <dlu@PATROSA.CANISHE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Douglas L. Urner" <dlu@PATROSA.CANISHE.COM>
Subject:      Re: thinking of buying a '93 Eurovan.. any words of wisdom?
Comments: To: JordanVw@AOL.COM
In-Reply-To:  Message from JordanVw@AOL.COM of "Sat, 12 Jul 2003 05:41:56 EDT."
              <10e.241d8389.2c4131e4@aol.com>

>hey all, im thinking of buying a '93 Eurovan MV.   any words of wisdom?

Don't do it!

I had one of these with a manual.  I lost it when I got divorced, and
replaced it with a '83 Vanagon.  The Eurovan was white and had a/c, the
Vanagon was dark blue and didn't -- except for a few weeks in the summer
I was much happier with the Vanagon.

My gripes with the Eurovan:

 - it was much harder to work on, even an oil change was a major hassle.
 - quality wasn't great (bumper trim fell off regularly, rear heater
   failed, power mirrors were flakey, cruise was flakey, top required
   adjustment on a regular basis, camping battery cooked itself twice,
   etc.)
 - less space than a Vanagon
 - the transmissions, especially the autos, seem to be weak
 - funky tiling radiator (necessary to get to the spark plugs, but the
   mounts tend to fail)

On the plus side:

 - it had a reasonable amount of power (even with the a/c on)
 - the ABS was nice
 - I like front wheel drive

The '93s in particular don't seem to be a good bet, they used the Audi
inline 5 that year, the current EVs use a 6.  My guess is that the
smaller pool of '93s will result in parts problems.

Doug