Date:         Mon, 18 Dec 1995 20:24:07 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         smitht@unb.ca (Tim Smith)
Subject:      Re: H2O Head Info / VW-Bago Westy / dealer

Just had my free 58 point "Welcome Home" inspection from the VW dealer.
Took a half-hour of their time, water/slush dripping onto the mechanics head
and they pronounced it fine, eg:  parking brake- OK, now I had to agree with
this as the 'new' cable was on floor next to the brake lever, and it looked
fine to me too.  steering/suspension - OK, depends on how you feel about
torn boots and some slope in an upper ball joint, I guess OK.  guess I got
my money's worth :)  Tried to eat my weight in donuts and muffins while
waiting, hell it's for good reason I drive a vanagon, belch.

Spent 20 minutes going over a Eurovan/Winebag Westy.  Too much plastic, way
too much, reminded me of an airplane, little storage bins/lockers etc.
Storage space sucked, same good rear corner locker, but under bench about 8"
deep and not full width, rear area taken up by battery(s) and furnace
(Suburban brand, propane), small suitcase cubby hole 16" wide in middle.
Rear mattress pad was say 1.5" thick, groan.  They get thinner every model
change, loafs 4-5", vanagon 3-4", eurvan 1-2", (sorry splitties, never owned
one, yet!)
         Nice fridge, Norcold, big! At least the door was, I couldn't open
it, or much of the kitchen since the double middle seat was firmly against
it.  There is NO WAY anyone even mildly portly is getting into the rear
bench with that sucker in either.  Had H2O/grey water tanks. There is no
rear window on drivers side, badly claustrophobic (fear of santas) once I
had wedged myself into the back seat, shedding donut crumbs and grunting.
Surrounded by a uniform haze of muted gray colours, in pebble textured
plastic, natch. A Prozac experience?  And the curtains... plastic accordian
pulldowns, this van badly needs some wood/cloth trim, mind you baby puke
will wipe off easily.
         So, what did I like about it?  Well it's no Vanagon, felt cramped
overall, but the big triangular side windows in the pop-top are back!  Yes,
that's all folks, liked the side windows, miss'em in my vanagon.  $38K-Cdn
base, $42K as equipped, Oh, plus 18.7% taxes, let's call it $50 grand.  The
regional rep wasn't happy when I said I could buy 4 excellent used Westy
vanagons for that money and never need to buy another VW in my life.


On the wasserpoxer heads aspect,  Newsflash!  New heads come with a gold
coloured plating on them, cadmium, a nice basic anti-corrosion technique,
just like many of the parts that adorn your old bus right now, and how are
they doing? hmmmm...  Looks like they are treating the symptoms and not the
disease. Those of you getting refurbished heads might want to look into this
option, lots of plating shops could do this for you.  Oh, and if you are
ecologically conscious, cadmium plating was banned in Sweden in '78 due to
the toxicity probs / toxic waste.  It's getting so I'm afraid to leave the
house, unless you got donuts!

not so tiny, Tim