I have an '88 Westy, and with the caveat that it has all the famous problems that Water-cooled Vanagons are known for, I think it is great. It is fine as a commuter. Things that I see as minuses against a Westy are: 1.) Seating arrangement makes it a bit hard to hold a conversation with people in the back seats - however, depending on who is sitting in the back seat, and how you feel about them, this may be a good thing. 2.) If you have the models with the taller springs (mid 88 and earlier), you may not fit under some garages. A potential problem for parking in some city areas. 3.) The fridge. Even on its good days, it is a marginal unit (IMHO) Of course, one of the pluses is that if you take your Westy to work, you always have a place you can take a nap during lunch. <g> But the biggest plus of having a Westy is that you can use the on-board water tank to hold extra water to refill your cooling system en-route when the headgaskets start to leak. This saved me from being stranded in the middle of nowhere once. Todd '88 Westy pmunce wrote: > I have always wanted to buy a pre'92 VW Westphalia and of course I > now own a VWVanagon. > > My fear has always been the same as that of a boat owner. The two > best days of a boat owners life are when he buys a boat and when he sells > his boat. > > My Westfalia would be mostly used for my commute to work and an > occasional outing or road trip. > > Any advice would be much appreciated. My biggest hurdle will be my > ego as I am slave to it. > Thanks, Patrick. |
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