Zoinks!!

I am so sorry to hear that.

I forwarded your letter to the Vanagon Newsgroup to warn others, and ask
that the "Paul's in Annandale" recommendation be pulled from the
Vanagon.com site, ASAP.

That recommendation is from about 5 years back (1997?); I had completely
forgotten about it being out there. I wish I had remembered it being
there because I have since changed my opinion of Paul's 180 degrees,
based on a similar experience to yours.

In 1998 or thereabouts, I brought our mint-condition Type2 to them to
replace the front main seal (the one behind the clutch), which was
leaking slightly. When I went to pick it up, I trusted that all would be
well, based  on earlier experience.

I paid the invoice (with a check) and went out to drive the bus home...
Needless to say, the bus was not running right at all; it would hardly
run. I pulled back into Pauls, (which, as you know is a royal pain in
the *** once you are back on the street.  I asked him "what gives"? they
said they'd take a look... I waited an hour, consistently asking that
they get my van in the shop and fix it. He had a thousand lame excuses
about "having to finish this one up, and then he'd "get right on it..."

Fuming, I finally left with the bus, and limped it home to Fairfax city,
where we lived.

When I got home and poked around in the motor, I found my tin all banged
up, the engine periphery air seal installed backwards, almost NONE of
the vacuum lines connected (a couple of them plugged with bolts, and a
myriad of mis-routed wires and hoses. It was mechanical anarchy. I
stopped payment on the check and wrote a note to Pauls describing in
detail what I found.

He threatened to take me to court, and told him in so many words to kiss
my entire white ***. In the end, I sent him a check for (I think) $100
for the stuff they did right (the main seal) and told him wouldn't see a
dime more. I haven't talked to him since.

The other place to avoid is Buggy Barn in Alexandria. Even suckier.

I have since opted for the dealer (Stohlman's) or Ace German Auto in
Woodbridge. Ace is more a restoration shop for Air-cooled, and they will
tell you as much. Stohlman's knows their stuff (or atleast they did up
until 2000, the last time I had work done there).

From historic, walkable Mount Olive, NC,

G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett
Corporate Communications
Business: www.bulley-hewlett.com
Alliance: www.ntara.com
Home: www.MountOliveNC.info

-----Original Message-----
From: TeresaRein@aol.com [mailto:TeresaRein@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2002 11:04 AM
To: gmbulley@bulley-hewlett.com
Subject: Your recommendation

Matthew,

I followed the listing on the vanagon.com list and your testimonial and
had my van, which I bought in Annandale from a private party
"checked out" at Paul's. It seems that they did not only do nothing
(they finally did a compression check after I insisted, but didn't put
the
heat
shields back, and never drove the vehicle, which I had expressly asked
for),
but
they also gave me dangerous advice (when I called them after I broke
down an hour outside their shop) which I think contributed to a
catastrophic
head failure.

This is especially interesting in the light of the fact that they had
worked
on this vehicle for the PO. My shop tells me now I have a bad lower end
also,
so most likely not a vehicle with the advertised "original" mileage of
49k.

I is very possible that these folks used to be good at air-cooled
engines, but
to tell a person whose overflow tank is squirting coolant that this if
fine
and she
should just go ahead is, to say the least, questionable.

While I am not holding you responsible for any of my or "Paul's"
decisions,
I just wanted to alert you to the fact that not all that comes out of
there,
works.
I am glad it did for your wife.

Teresa Reinhardt