Date:         Wed, 9 Mar 2005 03:21:50 EST
Reply-To:     Oxroad@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Oxroad <Oxroad@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Vngns ARE junk! Re: '86 full Westy for sale...$2000...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Anyone has to agree with Andrew. Vanagons are junk, I mean c'mon!

In fact he understated it. Not reliable? I should say they're not. Hard to
find parts for? Try impossible. If the VW dealer has a part it astronomically
priced. Mostly the VW dealer doesn't have the parts so you have to hunt and hunt
and mail order if you're lucky. Doesn't anybody have to get to work on
MONDAY. Not if you're waiting for your Vanagon parts.

Hard to find people to work on a Vanagon, you say? I say impossible. And if
you do find someone it's because they're so darn dumb they bust about every
piece of the bus they touch. More money. More headaches. And no matter who works
on it or what they do,  three days after you get it home the heads start
leaking, and the idle starts hunting, and the engine starts cutting out
intermitently, the rear starts to sag, the front starts to lean, the sliding door handle
breaks off, the power window won't shut, the hub cap flies off, the muffler
strap breaks (NLA), the 700 miles of coolant hose start to weep, the odometer
stops, the heater fan siezes, the transmission starts to whine, and that's all
nothing compaired to the whining of your family wondering why you, a reasonably
intelligent person, insist on owning this sink hole of money and time.

And then horrible gas mileage? Yeah. The worst. And have you noticed the
price of Gasoline these days. And once you pay for the fuel it starts to seep out
the labryth of hoses over the poorly designed gas tank--right under the driver
and passenger!!!

Which leads to safety. Yes! Unsafe! The Covair laughs at the Vanagon!!!! And
not just the position of the gas tank. (Don't even get me started on the time
I saw a Vanagon rear end a Pinto!!!!!) But "German" engineering resulting in
roll over, long stopping distance, poor acceleration--all these add up to
UNSAFE! I knew a guy who was seriously injured in his Vanagon just by hearing a
traffic report on the radio of an overturned vehicle in a neighboring state!!!
Honestly, he's lucky he's alive.

Safe? What a laugh.

And as if we're not all responsible for the environment some of you have to
say "the heck with the environment" and go buy a Vanagon. Greenpeace has called
the Vanagon the vehicle of choice for those who felt their Hummers just
weren't doing enough to assure the demise of the planet.

And like Andrew said, if you're serious about either transportation or
travel, this ain't the vehicle for you. Unless you love travelling in the passenger
seat of a tow truck on a good day, or, on a bad day watching your stuck
Vanagon disappear in the distance as you get farther away from it in riding in the
bed of a 1958 Chevrolet pick up piloted by a kindly old sole travelling on
Route 40 outside Oklahoma City on his way to drop the chickens that are now beside
you in the truck bed at the "local" market 116 miles down the road where
you'll also find the only telephone for 400 miles. And, just your luck, that
telephone is busted, and it's Labor Day anyway. Now what about work on Monday?

The worst of the Vanagons by far in the low-mileage 1991 Vanagon Syncro
Westfalia with SA alloy wheels, SA big brake kit, and a plat cat heater. This is
know world-wide a the most unreliable, gas gusseling, unsafe at any speed,
environment killing, nobody will work on, can't ever find parts for,
non-transprotation, non-travelling piece of Junk!!!

If you've got one of the worst, the 1991 Syncro Westfalia, I've got $2,000
right here to take it off your hands and solve the problems you're having, have
had, will have, should have, might have, could have, would have, and even
won't have--the latter being the most insideous.

Junk I tell you. Just junk. Get out while you can. Take my offer.

Best,
Jeff
83.5 Westy
LA,CA



In a message dated 3/8/2005 4:58:24 PM Pacific Standard Time,
gnarlodious@EARTHLINK.NET writes:


> > On Mar 8, 2005, at 5:57 PM, Andrew Fox wrote:
> >
> >> There is one catch, anyone who wants to buy my van has to agree to
> >> acknoledge my "vanagon disclaimer" which will be printed on the bill of
> >> sale.  You can read the disclaimer on the ad at thesamba.com:
> >>
> >> http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=157107
>
> > Disclaimer:
> > Vanagons are not reliable, they are hard to find parts for, hard to find
> > people to work on them, they get horrible gas mileage, they are bad for the
> > enviornement, and they aren't safe. In short they are for car collectors
> and
> > not people serious about travelling or transportation.
>
>