Date:         Fri, 15 Apr 1994 00:02:18 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         rickgo@halcyon.halcyon.com (Rick Gordon)
Subject:      Looking for Westfalia

I'm in the market for a Westfalia and am seeking information from owners
(both current and former) on aspects of theirs.
Joel Walker was kind enough to forward a list of opinions on the various
model years, which was very informative. I've also spoken with a couple of
local owners and have received conflicting information, so I thought I'd
collect more data while I'm looking at what's available on the local market
(which seems to be *very* pricey for these I might add!)
Currently the best options in a used vehicle seem to be something in the
air-cooled Vanagon range - 1980-1983.5, although I'm also wondering about
scraping together enough $ to buy a Eurovan. (My wife would prefer this
option it seems after all the "glitches" in our 74 Volvo wagon. I just hate
putting that much money into something that depreciates so quickly!)

Questions:
- Are the air-cooled engines that much better?
- Is it really that hard to get mechanics that know the water-cooled engines?
- Are the 85-87 Vanagons as unreliable as Consumer Reports says?
- How about the later models that CR reports "insufficient data" for?
- Any Eurovan owners out there? Are they really worth it? Do you miss not
having the stove/refrig in them? Any other opinions on them?
- Are those refrigerators in all the others propane-fired? What's
reliability/usability of them?
- Do you use the Refrig/stove or is it just more of a hindrance?
- And of course, if you have something available for sale in the Seattle
area, let me know.

Thanks in advance.
Rick G.