Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2014 18:47:22 -0800
Reply-To: "SDF ( Scott Daniel Foss )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "SDF ( Scott Daniel Foss )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Organization: Cosmic Reminders
Subject: Re: 1993 Eurovan with 127,000 miles: yes or no
In-Reply-To: <0AAF4F0B-5337-49AA-87C6-0272E1021FCD@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
fwiw ..
IMO a vanagon is definitely NOT a truck ..it's a Sports Van ..
and has the same type suspenion that many Mercedes cars do..
If you look at the front suspension, for example , of an Eurovan
..this is probably the only vehicle anywhere that uses torsion bars for
springs on the front suspension where the torsion bars are mounted on
the upper control arm.
torsion bars are really a good springing system...they are just thin
rods often, that twist to provide the spring affect.
They usually just 'disappear' in the body of the car.
good examples of this are the Porsche 911, Jag XKE and and Honda CRX
..a great small car Honda never should have stopped making and selling.
It's like there is no front springs ...is how well torsion bars can
barely be noticed sometimes.
The eurovan ..
I am pretty sure the entire thinking behind the layout of the Eurovan is
dictated by crash safety considerations.
All that engine/trans mass up front...
front occupants sit Behind the front wheels, not over them as, in
Vanagons and old VW Buses.
Furthermore...
the floor is much higher in the vehicle than in a Vanagon ...
and a super heavy short torsion bar mounted to the upper control arm
...that's just weird.
such compoents are always mounted low in the vehicle to keep the center
of gravity lower.
etc.
the bad thing about Eurovans is they 'like money' ..a lot of it.
You can read about people that put $ 15,000 into repairs and Still gave
up on them...they got so beat up with spotty repliability and high
repair costs.
There are people doing TDI conversions to them ..like AHU tdi engine ..
there's hope there I'm sure. Including rebuilding the trans with
modified gear ratios..
these are not inexpensive conversions ..
though I read they do quite well fuel milage wise.
A Eurovan is likely pretty nice as a cruiser when it's working right.
I own one ..a 93 5 speed manual trans, MV poptop model
Scott ...who has worked on just about every brand and type of car you
can think of..
even some that people on this list may not have even heard of ..for
nearly 50 years of working on cars mostly full time.
like a rear engine, air-cooled, OHC inline four NSU sports sedan ..
or a Citroen Mehari ...and every kind of car you can think of.
On 2/4/2014 6:14 PM, Robert Stevens wrote:
> On Feb 4, 2014, at 6:55 PM, J Stewart <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
>
> I talked to a Eurovan owner in a parking lot a while back. He was admiring my Vanagon, He said he traded a Vanagon in to buy the Eurovan. He also said it was the biggest mistake he ever made, for more unreliable and much more expensive to fix.
>
> I had exactly that same conversation in '04 with a couple who had sold their Westy, and got a '03 Eurovan in late '02. They had put something like 250K miles on the westy, and 75K miles on the Eurovan, and said it only took them one camping trip
> in the Eurovan to be completely disappointed with their choice. They were preparing to sell the Eurovan and get a Syncro Westy. They did not like how much smaller the interior and storage space was. Remember that the Vanagon is a truck, the
> Eurovan is a Passat platform.
>
> Read the maintenance reports/blogs about the '93 Eurovan. None of them is positive. Probably the worst year of their production.
>
> Bob
