Every car is a rat-hole when you think about it.
I don't care which one you buy.  It will suck at
your bank account faster than anything else you
buy.  Notice, I said buy.  Babies are free to make
but they'll cost you more than any car.  But that's
your decision, not mine.

Anyway... So if you get any used vehicle or new,
you're going to have to know the amount of
money you can spend on it.  Most of the car buying
population knows this and that's why we aren't all
driving Porsche's, Ferrari's or Lamborghini's etc.

There are many vehicles out there that are fairly
reliable for a certain amount of time and then after
that certain amount of time/miles has passed they
start to degrade and demand attention.  Note: atten-
tion = Dollars.

So no matter what you have, if it is used and past
that "certain age", it's going to need attention/
dollars.

The vanagon is no exception.  As a matter of fact,
it excels at this.  So if you want to keep one, you
need to be vigilant in giving it the attention it
needs.

How much attention it needs depends on how many miles
it has, how well it's been taken care of and how hard
it has been driven.  Your bank account will suffer
accordingly.

If there a many miles on the drive train, then plan
on setting aside some serious bucks for a replacement
engine/transmission.  I'm talking about 100,000 miles
plus.

There are a multitude of other things that can
wear out on this beast e.g. the coolant hoses, water
pump, fuel lines and on and on.  All these things
have to be considered with the age of the vehicle.

But it isn't just the vanagon that suffers with
age and I wouldn't rate it any less than any other
vehicle as far as reliability.  Or at least not by
much.

You just have to decide if your going to drive
just a car or are you going to drive a really cool
VW.   :)

--- John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> > So what's the bottom line - will I ever be able to
> > truly relax and have miles of trouble and worry
> free
> > driving, or is something always gong to need
> fixing?
> >
>
> Well...I'd say what happens eventually is you get to
> a point where it's a
> little of both. In the beginning, pretty much
> everyone gets a little
> panicked by all the money they end up throwing down
> the rathole just to turn

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