I recently heard of two different leased cars which NEVER had the oil
changed in the course of the three year or maybe two year lease. One was a  Toyota
which an acquaintance bought at auction and immediately had to put in a
rebuilt engine. The other was a person who was returning their leased vehicle  and
said, "I never change the oil. Why should I pay to change the oil. I'm  giving
the car back and it won't be my problem." yikes!

Now will an engine actually run say 30 or 40 thousand miles on the same  oil,
and were these people telling true stories? I dunno. My guess is at a
minimum you'll have to add oil every now and again. But it lends itself to
explaining how some people interpret taking care of a vehicle and why a vehicle  might
burn through engines.

Anyway, back to the point at hand. It's been mentioned before, but I think
it deserves mention in this thread. For the most part the maximum speed limit
in  the US was 55 MPH when our Vanagons were delivered. And as a result they
may  have been designed at best to travel pretty well at 55. I would almost say
they  weren't expected to travel at 70 or 75 MPH.

But that ignores the speed limit in Europe and elsewhere the Vanagons were
available at the time they were available. I don't know how Vanagons are driven
 in other lands. I believe the 55MPH federally mandated speed limit here in
the  US was repealed in 1995(?) Did it start in '82 or before that? I'm not
sure. But  it pretty much covers the run of the Vanagon, give or take the first
two  years.

The point is remembering the speed limit of the day might help swallow  the
pill of NOT being able to cruise at 80 MPH. And to answer the question  at hand
my bus is comfortable at 60 MPH. Sometimes I'll cruise at 65. 70  feels like
she's working a little too hard. This is all with a stock 1.9L which  is also
a VW of Canada rebuild put in at 100K when I bought it. How it was  driven
before I'm not sure, but it is wired for trailer lights. yikes!

And of course the best traveling advice for longevity of the vehicle is
keeping a good distance from the vehicle in front of you. Most times that's
pretty easy for me in the Bus... until that Subaru ship comes in. And  the horizon
is looking pretty vacant.

Best,
Jeff
83.5 Westy
LA,CA

In a message dated 1/15/2006 9:40:54 PM Pacific Standard Time,
inua@CHARTER.NET writes:

That  meant that sometime between when the vehicle was
new off the showroom  floor, and 89,000 miles, there had already been one
engine that went belly  up for whatever reasons, and now the
"Remanufactured in Canada" engine had  failed. Two engines in 89,000!!