All true, what you say.
But that's not what the original post was about - it was about record number
of miles on a waterboxer vanagon, and that 450K was sure a doozy !

 Two mileage records I know of are 1.8 millioin miles ( that's 100,00 miles
eighteen times ) on a 58 or so, 4 cylinder Mercedes sedan, documented.
  Also...this one I like a lot .....750,000 miles on a Mercedes 300D
automatic transmission, with just fluid and filter changes on the
transmission.  
And that 867K on a vanagon ...wow !!    
Scott
www.turbovans.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Allan Streib
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 10:48 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: 396,000 miles!!?? can anybody beat that?

With anything as old as a Vanagon, the mileage is largely irrelevant.
What matters is what sort of care and maintenance it's had over its
life, and what its current condition is.

About the only thing that will destroy a chassis is untreated rust, or
a severe collision.  Everything else can be repaired, replaced, or
maintained as long as parts are available and the owner is willing to
spend the time and money on it.

Allan