I have an '81 (air-cooled) non-Westy that I have driven
since new.  Before that I had a '76 and two splitties.
The '76 was the worst to drive--the position of the seat
and wheel, etc.  The Vanagon the best, by far.  I'm talking
about driving comfort on a long trip.  I've put
140,000 miles on it camping all over the West.

I bashed over many primitive roads--enough to bend something
in the front suspension once--because the only way to
get anywhere is to hit it hard and fast.  The air-cooled
just doesn't have any ability in 1st at low rpms.  I
suspect the water-boxer would be much better.  The 2wd
sucks in snow, compared to the earlier buses and isn't
too hard to get stuck in odd places, because, I think,
the rear wheels don't have as much travel, so it isn't
hard to take the weight off of one and then it spins.
The old splitties would crawl over almost anything in
comparison.  All this on 4x4 "primitive" road such as
getting into American Basin in the San Juans.

But if I didn't have my Syncro Westy, I'd still be doing
all those things in my '81!

                        Richard A Jones
                        Boulder, Colorado