I've got an appointment to look at an 88 Vanagon with an automatic
transmission tonight.  It's got 83,000 miles on the chassis, about
half of that on a VW remanufactured engine which the owner says was
installed at the dealer's cost since service work the dealer did
caused the first engine to "blow".

So I wonder what is the overall reliability of the automatic
transmission in Vanagons.  Do they have any known faults, or are they
fine as long as they are properly maintained ?  How does a Vanagon
with A/T perform - as well, or poorer than with stickshift ?