You gotta remember that hanging out on a forum like this can be somewhat
akin to working in a hospital.  When all you see and hear about every
day is sick people, you start to either feel sick all the time yourself
or think that the number of sick people in the world is a lot higher
than it is.  Granted that there are a huge number of people here who
just love the beasts and love hanging out here with our buds, but a lot
of people also just sign on periodically when they've got a problem that
needs to be fixed.  Thus, you hear a lot more horror stories than if you
were able to poll the entire population of Vanagon owners.  Having said
that, my '87 Westy has abandoned me 4 times now, the latest with a
thrown connecting rod through the top of the engine.  However, I never
hesitated to jump in it and drive 3-5 hours to a festival to camp out
for the weekend.  It was my daily driver for the four years and 35,000
miles that I've owned it.  If I were doing a longer trip, I would take
all the normal precautions one would take when driving a 17-year-old
vehicle on a long trip.  It's not fear and/or paranoia at that point;
it's reasonable precaution.

Just a few random thoughts,
Marc Perdue