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Date:         Sat, 5 Sep 2009 06:48:02 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: vanagon difficulty
Comments: To: Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@comcast.net>
In-Reply-To:  <4AA2536F.1010906@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

> > However you can't camp in it and I couldn't haul my > family in it all at once. My Dad owns a diesel Ford F250 Crew Cab, a > 2008 Jetta TDI, a 1998 diesel Ford E350 van, and an 89 Vanagon Wolfsburg > (Blue). Guess which one he drives the most? The Vanagon of course. :-) > > Ken Wilford > John 3:16 > www.vanagain.com > > > Well this may seem like blasphemy in "this room" on the Vanagon list, but if I had my choice of vehicles to drive...and I mean just sitting there behind the wheel, in the seat, pushing the pedals working the stick, without considering anything else, I would probably not choose to drive my Vanagon. I find that sitting in mine on a long trip is not very comfortable. Maybe on a comfort scale of 1>10, mine might go 5.... Mine is kinda noisy. Mine takes concentration in gusty winds. It's kinda top-heavy..I mean, it's a van with high ground clearance, how could it not be. Mine has crappy (can I still say crappy on this list?) traction on snow or sand. No, for pure driving--point A to point B without taking parking, fuel mileage, carrying capacity..I'd take even my Ford 250 4X4 King cab diesel over the Vanagon..But it gets about 14mpg, so it's parked mostly. Or the best traveling car I ever owned (when everything worked perfectly, which was rarely) was my 91 Porsche 928 GT...Now THAT was a real pleasure to get in and go...I recently re-traced a route we previously drove (Nevada) in the Porsche GT (in the Pony Express 100 Open Hwy Rally) I think we averaged 165mph for ~100miles, talking to each other (my SO was my Navigator, both times) across the GT with Lyle Lovett playing softly on the stereo and the climate control keeping us cool in our fire suits... something like 38 minutes to go from Austin to Battle Mt.. That was fun! Then we did the same route with the 84 Vanagon....I think about an hour and a half...That route has not much reason to dawdle, not that much fun in the Vanagon... Just sayin Don't get me wrong, I love the Vanagon and I do choose to drive it as my daily driver. Not because it is the most fun, the easiest, the most comfortable to drive, though. If I had a car lot full of cars and someone told me to 'grab one and drive 300miles round trip'..I doubt if I would choose a Vanagon over most of the others.. But given what it can carry, what it can do once you get there, the fuel economy and ease of parking, it's relative nimbleness, yeah, I would rather HAVE a vanagon than plenty of other rigs. Don Hanson


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