I think that when the Vanagons were conceived, there was still a
philosophy that prevailed in Germany for "the peoples car", ie, a
vehicle that everyone could own - and repair himself. So, the Vanagons
were built around that - thank goodness. But no more. For owners of
newer vehicles and owner maintenance, the newer vehicles are a pain in
the arse!

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

Evan Mac Donald wrote:
> Yeah, I know how ya feel. I swore - some time ago, - in all sincerity, tho - that I would never own a vehicle with fuel injection, or electronic ignition, because I coudn't 'fix' it if it broke. Now I am driving something that has BOTH! Most of the rest of the vehicle is still refreshingly primitive - er, simple.
>
>   Maybe my skills have grown since I made that declaration...  ;-<P
>
> "dhanson@gorge.net" <dhanson@GORGE.NET> wrote:
>   So I've been really using my vanagon lately. We 'escaped' the northwest and are 'snowbirding' in
> the California desert until probably around March. My SO brings her horses along with her truck and
> trailer and we have a travel trailer as our main residence. I come down here later with my bikes
> and this year, my carpentry tools to help pay for all the fuel, etc.. I arise early to get to work
> while my SO comes home late from her job..So I have been commuting and cooking breakfast in the
> Vanagon as well as using it for a tool truck and taking weekend road trips to various bicycle routes.
> Recently, my defrost slider got weird, not seeming to move the needed flaps around right so I
> could get the steam from my coffee cooking off the windows to drive to work..So today I 'dove in'
> and fixed the thing..
> I love the way the vanagon goes together..Clips, screws, clamps and cables. Stuff you can
> actually fix. The defrost cable had kinked due to a ham-fisted install on my stereo and it finally
> broke completely right near the lever at the heater control. So I popped off the heater cover,
> pulled the radio, unscrewed the glove box hinge and there it all was. I decided I could simply cut
> off some of the control cable housing and put a new Z-bend in the cable then re clamp the ends..It
> worked..Unlike most newer vehicles where I would have been to the dealer for new controllers,
> resistors, body panel clips etc. While I was in there, I fixed the 'hanger' on my glove box by
> replacing it with an old bicycle brake cable..
> Don't try that stuff on a Gran Vitarra or a Ford Excrutiation...
> Don Hanson
>
>
>