It's great fun to read this "historical artifact"!  To see phrasing like
"clearly the leader in technological development in its class," "the overall
feel is that of a European family sedan, an Audi perhaps" and "performance
is something you won't find lacking in the water-cooled Vanagon" sound
ridiculous now, especially for anyone who has owned and driven one as long
as I have ('84 Westy since 1986, 260,000 miles).  But at the time, I more
than agreed with this assessment, and it really was accurate. Vehicles at
that time were much less sophisticated than today.

Why didn't they give us the 5-speed transmission this article says was
available in Europe?  They were trying to keep the cost down, no doubt, but
it was wrong headed thinking. If there are any of these sitting around in
junkyards in Europe, someone could make some money bringing them over!

Thanks for posting this great article!

Stuart MacMillan