Folks on this list tend to bash the vehicle they've chosen to drive for
reliability issues.

This is something I do not understand.  I've driven my vans a half million
miles.  In that time I've had three heads leak, and no catastrophic
failures.  I was stupid enough to run straight water instead of 50/50 in the
first engine, which eroded the heads and the head studs (@ 120,000 or so).
I've had a tranny start to shift poorly, and then decide not to go into
third or fourth gears, as I recall.  This happened at around 225,000 miles.
I've had an engine go 175,000 miles with no problems.  I pulled it in
anticipation of a cross-country trip.  I could plug it back in and use it
tomorrow if needed.

On the other hand, I've had several Fords, a Mercedes Benz, and several
other VWs and a Volvo, none of which lasted past 120,000 miles.  When
finally gotten rid of, the doors did not close properly, windows rattled
badly, the seats and carpeting were worn out, and big chunks of plastic were
missing (like dash pieces, etc.), not to mention that most of the vehicles
in question were finally gotten rid of due to non-functioning trannies (I
don't believe I will ever buy another vehicle with an automatic tranny).

Karl Wolz
----- Original Message -----
From: "t" <vbob@PRIMENET.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2000 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: Instant horsepower (Pinwheel)

> Ummm.... what reliability?
>
> Doktor Tim wrote:
> >
> >
> > >Because they are thinking about how unsafe their Vans are going to be
> > >with all this new found horsepower?
> >
> > That new found hoursepower comes at the loss of old time reliability,
> > typically.
> >
>
> NOT the vanagon's strong suite in stock form.
>
> tim