charles-giannone@hlp.com wrote:
:       http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov
:       [...]
:       I have cruised to this page and it was very informative for my Isuzu 
:       and Nissan P/U but it didn't have anything for my 74 bug...maybe it 
:       doesn't go back that far??

I did some searches of consumer complaints for various flavours of
Volkswagen trucks (which all of the bus-oids qualify as).  Lots of
fires and fuel leaks, a couple of tire problems.  Everything had a date
of 1978, so I suspect the available data doesn't really go back much
farther than that.  That may also just be when the data was typed in,
as there was no model year information reported.

For recalls, it found one for ``all models of 1966 Volkswagen'',
involving thread failure in the windshield wiper fastener.  The recall
was issued in 1972.

The forms for the various search engines are a little annoying (you
have to fill out three or four separate forms to do a search).  From a
web designer's point-of-view, this makes sense, as it speeds the
loading of the pages (each form is built up based on what you entered
in the previous form), but it's irritating as a user.

I couldn't search the Technical Service Bulletins, because something
about their forms broke my (out-of-date) browser.  They did mention
that the only TSBs they had were safety-related, so things like
peeling paint problems won't appear.

Their server appears to be under-powered -- it takes a long time to
respond to forms submissions and such.  This doesn't appear to be a
network problem, because once the data starts flowing, it comes
through quickly.

Given all that, they also claim to be revamping things soon, so maybe
my caveats will be irrelevant in the near future.

	Dworkin