My stepdad had a '79 Bus that was at 180k when he sold it reluctantly.  The
engine/tranny had never been removed (original clutch), nor had it required
any major repairs during his decade of ownership.  It had the same square
port heads and 2liter block as the early Vanagons.

I once knew a guy with an early 1.9liter, that had over 250k on the bottom
end, with one set of rebuilt heads.

Having owned an NA diesel Vanagon, I probably would agree with their
assessment, but only because VW should've gone with a 1.6 turbo or the
2.05cyl Audi turbo...and they should've installed power steering for
all
models.

On 9/2/06, Mike Rouby <mikerouby@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Anyone who has read GoWesty's catalog or website, will get to the info in
> this link:
>
>   http://www.gowesty.com/campermodeloverview2.html
>
>   According to them:
>
>   1) Aircooled Westfalia's are the WORST models
>   2) Thank God they only sold the Diesel models for two years
>   3) Round headlight Westfalias are not recommended for sale.
>
>
>
Casey
Olympia, WA
Biodiesel: "I drive in a persistent vegetative state"
'87 300TD intercooler #22 (218k)
'84 300D (216k)
Gashuffer:
'89 Vanagon Wolfsburg Edition (187K)
http://users.zhonka.net/zeitgeist/Misc/IMG_0171.JPG