Date:         Sun, 19 Dec 2004 18:19:46 +1300
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon name - where´s the
              HiAce´s... Eurovans
In-Reply-To:  <001601c4e54c$38385e70$4f41e251@Calles>
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1

That's Hiaces, no apostrophe.

>But as so often with company cars nobody bothered to put any real attention
>to their rustproofing and since Toyota left it to the customer to put that
>stuff on, many of them has rapidly rusted away on the Swedish salted roads
>which is a shame since the drivetrain was almost bulletproof.
>It´s too bad it doesn´t fit in the Vanagon since there was a really nice 4x4
>diesel sold  :-)

They don't generally rust here, fortunately. But 
ours are all Japanese-assembled. Of course our 
roads are unsalted, but a large proportion of 
them come used from Japan, where they DO salt 
roads.

Some of the previous generation of Hiaces 
(LH60-series, the 3rd generation) do have rust 
problems. My previous 4WD diesel LH66 had rust, 
but it had been used by a scuba backpacker's 
hostel, and not only carried dripping salty 
divers & gear, but ran along wet beaches.

As to Europe, the BIG van disease seems to have 
displaced normal large domestic vans there. The 
Frod Transit, Fiat & Renault are all very large, 
comparable to the LT/Sprinter clone. The only 
normal-sized vans I know of from there are the 
Mercedes Vito and VW T5, and the Vito is really a 
wagon, with its low roof.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut