Jake,

As has been already mentioned, the Vanagon tire simply isn't a common item anymore. Service may suck, but I bet you'd get that anyway...

Here are the things that have helped me do two sets of tires at two different places:

1) Know what you're after, then find local places that sells those lines.
My first set of Agilis were bought at the local Costco since *nobody* else I talked to would even look in their commercial catalog. Costco didn't need to -- they had them listed (then) for the Vanagon. The tires had to be ordered, however, and shipped in.

My second set had to be purchased from Sears, accompanied by lots of gesturing and repetition on my part. The were convinced that I was wrong until I forced them to look. They then appologized.

2) If you get bull, walk.
There are TONS of places who would like your business. Sometimes it takes a little while to find them.

3) You can buy from a local place, but they're still going to order them
Like was mentioned, they might have to be brought in from far away. Nice to keep local $$ local, but know that most of it is still going somewhere else.

john
(who grew up with corporate gas stations and service stations since the 70s. Things have changed, but things have also stayed the same.)