Yeah, according to my brother in law, a long-time auto mechanic who
lived in Santa Cruz his whole life up till a five years ago, it's hard
to find a mechanic in Santa Cruz who DOESN'T know how to work on a
Vanagon. The sheer quantity of 'em around there (and old rear-engine
VW's in general) practically guarantees a quick trip over the learning
curve. That, and the fact that VolksCafe is up there providing both
parts AND service, pretty much ensures a bumper crop of running
Vanagons. The only other place I've seen a similar inordinate
concentration is in and around Los Osos, down by San Luis Obispo,
where GoWesty is.

> visited Santa Cruz last week ( actually moving there later this summer for
> new job) and was wondering if there are more vanagons in the Santa
> Cruz/Capitola/Soquel area than everywhere else in the world, combined. Seems
> like everytime I turned my head there was another one. Must be some great
> vanagon mechanics in the area :-)