>I'd settle for a well-designed inline engine.  VW never did figure out how
>to make a watercooled boxer reliable, but their inline engines are pretty
>good.

VW's current straight engines are coarse and lacking in go. I guess
this is because of costcutting... why design a nice new engine when
you can revamp one from the early 70s? (I prefer to use inline for
engines oriented with the crank in-line with the car's axis; this
fits best with using transverse for engines laid across the car's
axis).

>  > -full-time 4WD, with no viscous couplings please
>
>This gets into more complexity again, since 'full time' and 'no viscous
>couplings' pretty much means 'electronically controlled'.

Dunno How Toyota does it, but these don't give trouble. Of course VW
would insist on using Botch electronics... but we are talking about
an ideal here, are we not?

>  > -power steer standard
>
>Eh.  My van doesn't have power steering and I don't see the need.  Just
>more to go wrong.

Mine's way too heavy. GOOD ps gives no problems.

>  > -vertically-split tailgate option (as in current Toyota Hiace)
>
>Hmm...my opinion is that it's best to avoid doors that latch to other
>doors at all costs.  The rear and side doors were a serious source of
>rattles and water leaks in my Econoline.

My work's 82 LandCruiser Wagon has a vertically-split tailgate...
with bits missing from the seal. They don't shut too well either, but
they don't rattle or leak water or dust on gravel roads.

>Plus rear doors with a split
>between them means there's a blind spot right in the center of your
>rear vision.

Some vehicles have asymmetrically-split gates... though to make
mirror-image ones for LHD & RHD markets, as they would require some
different bodywork also.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin, New Zealand
64 (3) 473-8863
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh & VW/Toyota van nut