At 13:55 1/13/00 , t obrien wrote:
>hear me boasting of the engineering prowness coming out of Wolfsburg. DM
>methode be damned. The reliability of my Toyota truck is 1000 times better
>than the Vanagon. Let's talk engineering. Let's talk QA. Let's talk which

I have spoken to God and He has told me that Toyotas exist so that Vanagon
owners can have one, and devote more time to their Vanagon.  It certainly
has worked for me!

david
ps -- He said that Hondas and Subarus will do in a pinch, but watch out for
the sheet metal on old Subarus (not to mention some truly bizarre
ergonomics.  The standouts in the '76 that I drove for a while were the
heat control, which turned ON if you moved it clear to the right and OFF if
you moved it clear to the left.  Anywhere inbetween, it kept the previous
state.  And the gas gauge, which read Full for a loooong time and then fell
off a cliff.  And the driver-side shoulder-belt reel, which I belted
(sorry) with my elbow at least every second day. OW!  They must have liked
the heat control, it took them years to improve it more than
marginally).  And Hondas aren't fun to work on b/c Mr. Honda kept making
the engine box smaller and smaller and tighter and tighter.  I can't tell
you if Toyotas are fun to work on, I've hardly had to aside from scheduled
maintenance.  Of course my first two succumbed to external forces (one sold
and one crunched) before they reached 200k miles, so maybe they fall to
bits after that...

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"