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Date:         Thu, 3 Sep 2009 11:18:14 -0400
Reply-To:     Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject:      Re: Vanagons and part
Comments: To: Bernie Steinnger <berniej@GMAIL.COM>

For those who don't know I work on Vanagon only.

Yes parts are lately a bit more difficult to get and that is a fact. Impossible for some but not many. Most standard maintenance parts are in general pretty easy to get. Still, some parts are fading away slowly for now, will they come back in force? I don't know. Bus's (72-79) and Splity are stll on the road but they are more simpler vehicle, way less parts and less electronic, you can also replace FI with carbs eliminating a lot of crucial parts.

The problem for shop owner is "how long to get the part", most shop owner don't have the luxury to leave a van on a lift and wait to many days to 2 weeks for parts to arrive, and that is THE real problem! So shop that don't live out of Vanagon may choose to work on other vehicle.

So it mean something simple, a lot of preparation and a good diagnostic before you start the job... or you may be left with a stranded non working van for many days. Why the hell a shop owner would like to deal with that????

But now, why would shop work on Vanagon??? or any older vehicle? It's a passion and nothing else, but passion fade away with time.

If i didn't have that Subaru conversion going on I would have gone crazy by now and I would probably work on something else. Also, for most of us this is a gateway toy. But we love our toys and that make us more... demanding. We want our toy fix for the big weekend!!! but you the customer neglected basic maintenance and now you blame the mechanic... i see that every week.

That said, i don't work on Air-cool no more for that reason (and others), i can't get parts easily. This is why i gather use parts for water cool vanagon since 5 years, they save me a lot of trouble. A use part is better than no part.

It's a passion thing but there is more reliable camper van out there, more expensive of course.

So if by doing this post you are looking for advice! Well, now you know. You are not buying reliability.

Ben http://www.benplace.com

On Tue, 1 Sep 2009 14:22:01 -0700, Bernie <berniej@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

>A good VW shop in North Vancouver is now recommending to it's customers NOT >to purchaseVanagons as they are "too old" and some replacement parts >difficult if not impossible to get. >Your comments please? > > >Bernie >Vancouver


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