I've lived in Minnesota all my life, most of it in northern MN (Embarrass 
as a matter of fact.)  We never put different steering or tranny oil, or 
for that matter, regular oil.  As far as I know my dad always ran 10W-30 
or 10W-40 in everything.  You just get used to the fact that sometimes 
cars don't want to run.  Of course, now that I'm livin' the high life and 
have a garage, the car always starts.  Garages make all the difference.

This winter will be my first full winter with the vanagon -- hope it 
starts, eh?  Got a new battery, and new coolant.  Should be ok.  If it 
isn't, you all will definitely hear about it :-)

--
Gerry
Gerald Skerbitz <gsker@med.umn.edu> U of MN Med School Admin 6-5379