>It never fails!
>Whenever someone comes along complaining about all kinds of problems,
>someone will inevitably reply saying 'well I've had hardly any problems at
>all'.
>Of course it is all totally menaingless, every vehicle is different and
>every owner is different. Two people could buy the same vehicle and
>maintain it in exactly the same way and one person would have lots of
>problems and another none at all.

Not meaningless. Some vehicle designs really ARE trouble-prone, and owners
who are less than one-eyed about them will be happy to spell out just what
goes wrong. Enough is mentioned about Vanagons to indicate that there ARE
headgasket problems and trans failures, and this should not be the case.

Other mechanically troublesome vehicles known to me:
diesel Nissan Skyline, Cedric, Laurel (RD28 engine), 1985 and later (crank,
head, bore, bearings)
Nissan Vanette and Urvan/Homy/Caravan vans
Subaru Leone (=Omega) and Alcyone (=XT6, Vortex) 1985-88 (cracked heads)
diesel Mazda Familia (=323, GLC), Capella (626) and Bongo (=Ford
Econovan/Spectron), B-series pickup
diesel Mitsubishis (the works)
gas Mitsubishis (excessive ring wear)
any turbodiesel... Japanese, at least (cracked heads, dropped valveseats)
Yamaha XVZ550 (=Vision)
Honda VT250 V-twin sporty (crankshaft)

Electrical problems:
Nissans

Rustprone:
Hondas, any age
Isuzus

Fall to pieces:
Holden VT Commodores

The T3 seems to suffer more than its share of these bar rust and falling to
pieces!

Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin, New Zealand
fax 64 (3) 479-7527
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
www.goingplatinum.com/member/vw1
www.my-successcenter.com/member/vw1
www.aciimoney.com/index.shtml?vw1
VW & Toyota vans, Toyota diesels and Macintoshes rule