Courtney,

I have an '84 Auto Trany Westy Vanagon.  It gets about 20 mpg on a good
day.  It has a range of about 250 miles on a full tank.  I had the 1.9L
engine upgraded to a 2.1L and now it has adiquate power.  '84 is the first
year that the Vanagon was made with water cooling.  In about 86 or 87 they
switched to a 2.1L engine and modified the cooling system a little bit.
You will find that the water cooled vanagons have a lot of problems related
to the cooling system it they aren't maintained properly.  The auto trany
is defiantely nice for city driving but I would recommend a stick if you
live in the hills.  All the extra power you can get climing is a plus.
Mine doesn't have A/C or power stearing.

Here is what I have done on my Vanagon.  Take a look at my website.  Good
luck on your seach.

-Blake Heinlein
http://memebers.accessbee.com/heinlein

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On Wed, 30 Oct 2002 10:07:45 -0800, Courtney Hook <chookvw@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>Well the 79 is moving on now to someone who will restore it , so I'm now
on the hunt for a vanagon Westy and am asking the usual question, water or
air, which year, etc etc. The only thing I am after definitely is the
automatic tranny, and am curious about gas mileage and reliability of the
vehicles. This is the last machine my wife and I want to purchase as it
will be our retirement vehicle for travel around North America so has to be
a good one. Can anyone review the various options in the years and the
introduction of new features throught the Vanagon's production? I am NOT
interested in the Eurovans. I would appreciate any info, thanks!!! Do the
auto vanagons get decent gas mileage? My auto 79 Type2 got 20-21 mpg (big
Canadian gallon) Muchos Gracias amigos!!!
>
>Courtney
>
>
>
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