With all talk about vans to take the place of our vanagons....I've thought
about inexpensive alternatives, since "inexpensive" was what brought me to
Vans in the first place....first with my Splittie waaaay back and later
when I got my 84 about 5yrs ago now...  Lately, people have been paying
rather large prices for vanagons...I don't think I would consider buying
one now, at these prices, I'd be looking at the compact GM vans....Safari
and Astro.

   Compared to that recent Syncro everyone was chattering about, you could
get an AWD GM van for probably about $124.000 less,  and then maybe put a
few bucks into it and come out with a better value...I would think you
could probably make a better vehicle with that kinda dough.

   Really, you can find very nice GM vans, 2wd, AWD, automatic or 4sp for
very cheap compared to what is being asked lately for Vanagons.  I would
generalize and say the GM vans are going at about 10-20% of the cost of a
vanagon......And the GM vans have great reputations for durability, for
inexpensive maintenance, for towing capacity and for power and
speed...Those with camper packages and pop tops are fairly common and
almost any mechanic is familiar with the drivelines.

   I'm certainly not looking for a brand new vehicle to buy, one that might
be what a Vanagon of 2013 would be...Imagine what VW would ask for one like
that...

   But if my Vanagon ever really wears out, I'll probably replace it with a
Safari or an Astro..because those are still a great value and with the
savings over a "collectors Vanagon" I could make a great vehicle and still
have enough left over to go use that sucker...