Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 17:58:34 -0600
Reply-To: Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Subject: Re: umbrella question about reliability
In-Reply-To: <4012F6B4.1030001@bellsouth.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
My 90 has over 188000 miles on it (all mine), and my 83 diesel has over
230000 miles on it (only 2500 are mine).
Others on the list have much higher mileage.
The chance of owners putting money over all that time and distance into
something that won't get them around reliably is pretty slim, I'd
think.
My 90 always needs something... front tires, cruise control, central
locking to name three. But everything else is good, and the car has
never left me stranded anywhere.
Now that I've got the diesel in reasonable shape, it seems OK too. I
don't think I've been in ANY other 83 car that is as rock solid and
drives as well as that camper.
Anyway, both drive great, it's not like I'm having to put up with some
piece of s**** car. And they both look pretty good, too.
Jim
On Jan 24, 2004, at 4:50 PM, John Rodgers wrote:
> What is reliability??? And what is the time factor??
>
> If you rebuild it and run it for a week and you have abolutely zero
> problems, just get in and ride, the I'd say you had a reliable vehicle
> ........... for a week. If it stalls out, drops a CV, develops head
> leaks, AC quits, etc, etc, in a week ....... well, not very reliable.
> Stretch that to a year, then 10 years, and thepicture of what is
> reliable changes.
>
> My van, thought it had low mileage when I bought it, was crap. I had to
> deal with everything the PO had not taken care of ......... and it cost
> me. But was it reliable ............ well, yes, AFTER I rebuilt the
> engine, the tranny, replaced the CV's, the master brake cylinder, the
> clutch master, repaired the AC tunnel, replace the speedometer, and a
> whole host of other things, I would say its reliable. AFTER I did all
> that, I can pretty much say I have a VERY reliable van. BUT, for some
> reason, there are ALWAYS niggling little things with these machines.
> Like I had a fuel line to pull loose from a hose. Fuel pump drained
> the
> tank dry in short order. .
>
> But even so, in the grand scheme of things, if you rework the van, you
> will find it to be a reasonably reliable machine. It will get you where
> you want to go when you want to go.............most of the time! Keep
> in
> mind however, the last Vanagon sold in the US was the '91 model. There
> hasn't been a brand new vanagon sold here since.That makes even the
> latest ones 13 years old.
>
> Regards,
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
>
> JAMES FOWLER, III wrote:
>
>> if the vanagon i have (1984) is rebuilt carefully and
>> thoroughly, is there any need to worry about
>> reliability? what i'd like to do is overhaul the
>> engine and take it out on the road for various and
>> sundry reasons. i'm not looking for an "around town"
>> vehicle, and i wanna make sure that i'm not about to
>> start throwing money into a bottomless pit.
>>
>> thanks.
>>
>> -jim
>>
>>
>>
>
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