Date:         Mon, 12 Jun 95 13:47:35 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         ja@decws3.coe.wvu.edu (John Anderson)
Subject:      Re: 5 cyl Vanagon/f

Well not to get into another shouting match but I have driven
one more than around the block.  Mom and dad borowed a '93
MV for a weekend and as I had a lot more recent Vanagon driving
experience, I took it out and flogged it ruthlessly for an
afternoon, took it from NE WV up to Pittsburg, around Pittsburg 
and back, although not 3000 miles hardly little enough to make
me EV impaired.  Now I agree totally with Ric and Bill to
the fact it is the best handling, best powered VW van to date.
Still it is ONLY adequately powered, ie. say you got 7 people
and are on a good uphill interstate grade cruising 70-75 and need
emergency power to avoid something like a errant Subaru coming at you
over the median on its roof backwards (I have had this happen
to me in the '86, hit the pedal and nothing, had to do a snap
lane change from the passing lane to the right median which the
Van did very nicely and the guy behind me said the Subaru missed
by less than 1 foot), will you have it Ric?, the truth please. 
Certainly not without a downshift, and what if you are on
vacation and are towing a trailer?  And it is noisier than a
Vanagon, not as noisy as a Bus or most V6 american products though
so that isn't really too much of an issue either.  The only real
problem I had (past tense as I don't think she's comin back) with
the EV is price, and this certainly was not VW's fault, simply
bad exchange rates and poor German economy after the unification.
They could not sell any German made product, Corrado, EV, and not
many Passats, an unfortunate truth, hell if they had tooled up
EV production in Mexico or Brazil instead, replacing the ongoing
Type 2 production they might have sold em by the 100,000s for
a few grand less, could have been like the glory days, the product
was sound, the size incredible.  As it was a 20V, ABS free, and a 
smooth automatic might have attracted enough of the "sheep" into giving
it more of a try compared to the competition.  Fact is to be mainstream
and sell cars you must cater to the market even if it is a stupid,
fickle, lazy, market, the 50's and 60's are gone, VW does not have the
only smaller van on the block getting acceptable mileage.  Your
average "value on the outside" driver will not sacrifice convenience
for a van even if it will go 15+ years as they will probably only
keep it 5 to keep up with the neighbors.  And of course reliabilty
of the Wasserboxer left a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths
as did A/C problems, trim problems, etc. that Consumer Idiots were
quick to extoll in their typical anti-VW way.  Anyway this all said
I will of course probably buy one used in a few years and I know dad
is really thinking about one yet even though I have tried to convince
him into a nice low miles Vanagon instead to avoid the massive
depreciation costs but he has the money and really doen't care
so go figure a VW van owner is a VW van owner until he dies
and buys what they offer because to us it is the only
real game on the block.

John
ja@coe.wvu.edu
'71 Westy Virginia, '90 Corrado G60