Hi Adam,

I have both, and love each for different reasons. It would really hurt  
me to have to choose one over the other; they each have their strengths.

I started with an aircooled. I really love the simplicity of the  
aircooled design and the ease of service. I upgraded my aircooled bus  
in a number of ways, over the years I have created my own weekender  
configuration that suits my needs perfectly for double duty as a  
camper and as a second car for my family. My wife is currently driving  
it daily here in Toronto to get to work as a TTC (city bus) driver. We  
hadn't planned to drive it through the winter, but were forced to when  
her cabriolet blew a head gasket back in November.

I got my own watercooled van just short of a year ago. I use it as a  
daily driver for my work as a service technician (Field Service  
Engineer) working on wide format printers, table routers and vinyl  
cutters. I have put 26,000 miles on it so far. Since it also has a  
weekender interior (but no pop-top) I have also pressed it into use as  
a camper on occasion when it's just the wife and myself.

The watercooled definitely holds the advantage right now in terms of  
comfort, space and power. But the aircooled is cheaper to run and  
easier to service,

I certainly would not rate aircooleds as less reliable as long as they  
are well maintained and driven within their limits.

</Greg>

Quoting Tieitup <tieitup@GMAIL.COM>:

> Why do you all love your vanagons so much over the air cooled busses. what
> is it, the possibility that maybe their more reliable?the body style or just
> possibly because you have one and love her dearly.
>
> adam
> 88 westy getting skinned this week for work
>