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Subject:Re: "Favorite Vanagon Features" (& least-favorite)
From:Andrew Grebneff
Date:Sat, 14 May 2005 22:28:19 +1200

>How about it listees, what are your "Favorite Vanagon/Westy Features"

GOOD:
Room
Width
Walkthrough
Seats comfortable (GL spec), all with armrests (though for safety the
driver's shouldn't have those)
Slider locks in open position
Rear-mounted engine layout
IRS
Handling
Forward-control design
Ultrastrong body design at BOTH ends
Appearance (very dependent on color!)
Groundclearance
No floor well inside slider (unlike Japanese vans)
Upgradability!!

BAD:
Width
Crappy doorhandle design
Shoddy locks
Tailgate gas struts (what was wrong with the older sprung setup?)
Rattling slider top roller (a maddening VW problem, my Bay had it as
well, Japanese vans don't)
Awful plastics
Poor electrics & switchgear
Fusebox located in glovebox (RHD)
Fusebox a joke in my 84
Taillights too small, too low & not wraparound
Light & wiper switches on wrong sides (dangerous & typically European in RHD)
Front indicators too low, too small
Fragile window-winder handles
Engine
Transmission
Brakes weak
No wheelbase options
Engine hump (mind, this allows engine swaps, so maybe this should be
in the upper section)
Not made any more

--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut

HUMANITY: THE ULTIMATE VON NEUMANN MACHINE

DEMOCRACY: RULE BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR

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