In addition to our  7-passenger '87 GL, we have a '95 Mitsubishi Montero - a
beautiful car.  But we always take the Vanagon - even off road (serious off
road) camping in the desert, because it's so nice, big and completely
dependable for us, and that with 230K on the same engine (heads redone 100K
ago).

Jim 
San Diego

-----Original Message-----
From: John Runberg [mailto:jrunberg@MAC.COM]
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 10:23 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Non-Family Hauler

> Do I sound bitter? Be prepared. Get yourself another real vehicle. I hope 
> you don't regret selling the Toyota. How the heck could you��not have
enough 
> room in it. We did fine with a Saab 9000.

We sold a 90s 4-runner a couple years ago and have never looked back. I'm
6'3" and anything over 30min in that truck was torture. Couple that with
expensive tires (they were large), high fuel consumption, and limited
headroom and selling was a no-brainer. The biggest issue was the requirement
of changing the timing chain every 60k -- something which required taking
apart the whole top of the engine (read: EXPENSIVE)! Dead reliable
otherwise.

RVC- we used the proceeds to get a westy. That's a car that I can fit in!

john