--snip--
(all my friends don't believe me when I tell them my car has 2 beds, a
fridge and a stove in it!)
--snip--

Don't worry about your friends, wait 'til you try to take a date out in it!
I went to pick up a girl I had started dating (we were both in our
mid-twenties) at her parents' house in my Chevy van. I rang the bell, her
folks answered the door.  I said hello, introduced myself and started to
shake her Dad's hand when her mother looked at me, looked at the van, and
without saying hello, boo or kiss my ass to me turned to the daughter and
said 'is there a bed in the back of that thing?'
In fact if had a platform, anyway (the mattress was rolled up in the
garage), but I had to open it up to show the mother all the tools and crap
piled on the platform before she would ease up any. Why she thought that was
important when she knew I had my own place I never knew, but there you have
it. I suppose my long hair and beard didn't help the situation any. I dated
that girl for four years and I never got in the black with that woman.

BTW, I just turned 41 last month, and my first (and only) VW preceding my
Vgon was an '80 Rabbit diesel, with which I had a love/hate relationship
until it finally died. Obviously didn't stop me from getting the Vgon, and
didn't stop the love/hate thing either. : )
My brother had the diesel pickup at the same time- he beat it to death, but
it took everything he had to do it.

Cya,
Robert