FWIW - you are talking 83.5 to 85... 86 was the first year for the 2.1L engine.

My '85 GL Westie rocks! In my (yes, *completely* biased) opinion, the only
upgrades this model really needs are:

         - H4 headlights... they put just enuff light on the road.
         - Power Mirrors... (I hated the "cross-cab shuffle" to adjust the
passenger-side mirror, knowing I'd only need to do it again after driving
into a headwind, a carwash, or any busy parking lot).

         My PO upgraded the lights, and I upgraded the mirrors (and yes, I
wired 'em up and they work! :-).

         The 2.1 does give more horsepower, but comes with the slightly
more complicated (and therefore slightly more fault prone) FI system.
DigiJet has enough ways to break already, thank you very much!

         Also, It seems that anytime I hear a listee bemoaning a hole in
the case with a rod sticking out of it, it seems to be a 2.1 engine... I
dunno if the engine is more prone to that failure, or if it is just a
numbers game (the 2.1 was sold for more 7 years vs. 2.5 years for the 1.9,
so likely to be in more vans).

Tim

At 03:14 PM 7/19/2004 -0400, Mark Cumnock wrote:
>Not trolling here , I was asked the other day , and wanted to hear other
>inputs
>
>My 2 cents:
>
>I like the 83.5-86 models.
>
>1.9 in the earlier models are cheaper to find than 2.1
>Brown interior rocks , Grey is too hard to clean and the eariler funky
>stripes interior ,well.....
>
>The wolfsberg interior is still holding up after 20 years.
>
>Square headlights look cool , but light output sucks and a SA grill is
>cooler.
>
>Power windows ? Who wants to work on something else....
>
>Just my 2 cents..........