> They are really only a city vehicle.  Grossly under powered for any highway
> driving   I owned one for many years that I installed a 1.6TD engine in.
> Even wIth the turbo and larger tires, it still wasn't great on the big
> highways.  I normally cruised around 55mph/90 kph.
> 
> The 1.6L is heavily stressed and tend not to last very long in that
> configuration.  I averaged about 50K kms between bottom end changes with
> the turbo.  Fortunately the van has a massive cooling system to help cope.

I concur, the US spec diesel Vanagons are very slow.  You will notice it particularly when trying to accelerate to highway speed coming off an on-ramp.  On a diesel Westy or a fully loaded Vanagon you may sometimes find yourself driving on the shoulder of the highway trying to gain enough momentum to merge into traffic.  I would not recommend buying one without driving it first to see if the sluggishness is something you can live with, unless of course you are open to an engine swap.   

Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com