What is reliability??? And what is the time factor??

If you rebuild it and run it for a week and you have abolutely zero
problems, just get in and ride, the I'd say you had a reliable vehicle
........... for a week. If it stalls out, drops a CV, develops head
leaks, AC quits, etc, etc, in a week ....... well, not very reliable.
Stretch that to a year, then 10 years, and thepicture of what is
reliable changes.

My van, thought it had low mileage when I bought it, was crap. I had to
deal with everything the PO had not taken care of ......... and it cost
me. But was it reliable ............ well, yes, AFTER I rebuilt the
engine, the tranny, replaced the CV's, the master brake cylinder, the
clutch master, repaired the AC tunnel, replace the speedometer, and a
whole host of other things, I would say its reliable. AFTER I did all
that, I can pretty much say I have a VERY reliable van. BUT, for some
reason, there are ALWAYS niggling little things with these machines.
Like I had a fuel line to pull loose from a hose. Fuel pump drained  the
tank dry in short order. .

But even so, in the grand scheme of things, if you rework the van, you
will find it to be a reasonably reliable machine. It will get you where
you want to go when you want to go.............most of the time! Keep in
mind however, the last Vanagon sold in the US was the '91 model.  There
hasn't been a brand new vanagon sold here since.That makes even the
latest ones 13 years old.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

JAMES FOWLER, III wrote:

>if the vanagon i have (1984) is rebuilt carefully and
>thoroughly, is there any need to worry about
>reliability?  what i'd like to do is overhaul the
>engine and take it out on the road for various and
>sundry reasons.  i'm not looking for an "around town"
>vehicle, and i wanna make sure that i'm not about to
>start throwing money into a bottomless pit.
>
>thanks.
>
>-jim
>
>
>