Terry, take it easy big guy. Sorry your friend is going through these
gyrations. I own an 85 Westy And a 93 E Van. Both great VW busses. Never had
a problem with parts availability back when my first 85GL was new and in the
9 years I owned it it needed LOTS of parts. Hope the "new" 85 is less needy.
In the past 8 years the 93 E Van has required little non routine maintenance
and when it has the parts were in stock-here in Chicago. And though I've
never had the kind of parts problems you mention it does reminds me of my
first new car a 74 VW Dasher. What a POS. Now there was car that needed parts
that only seemed to be back in Germany. But anyway we really like our E Van
and have decided to move up to an 02 weekender. I'm not sure how VW can force
it's dealers to sell X number of vans would they expect them to stick a gun
to a customers head and say "BUY THIS!" It may be they don't care if they get
an allocation of these vans. Jennings VW here in my area has not had a new E
VAN (other than an 00?-01? camper that's been sitting there almost a year) on
the lot in over a year. So unless people are buying them right off the truck
I can't imagine how they could sell any. But, good luck to you and you
friend, hope he gets back on the road soon.
Spencer
93 GL outbound
85 WESTY till death parts us
02 MVWK inbound