Exactly the same thing I was thinking.  A friend of mine paid us a
visit this weekend, and I got a chance to see the shape of the Dodge
Caravan he bought _new_ in early '89.   It now has 1/2 the miles on it
that my almost 10-year-old Vanagon has (69,000 vs. 140,000+). 
Body/interior looked older than mine, the paint has faded faster.  The
engine is not burning oil, but des not sound extremely healhty either.
Considering he paid $22,000+ for this then top-of-the-line vehicle, my
Vanagon has delivered much more on a per dollar basis (I put more than
51,000 of the 140,000 miles on it myself, but paid less than 1/3 of
what he paid for his vehicle, even after some initial _expensive_
work. By the way, the only reason he bought the Dodge in '89 was that
his wife vetoed a VW van...

Cetin

> I think the number of durability issues you see on the list are 
> due to the average age/mileage of the buses - most are 8-10+ yrs old. 
> The difference is a VW owner *expects* to keep his bus in good shape 
> for a much longer time than say a D*dge C*r*van owner. At 8 yrs old, 
> a Caravan is probably on its 4th owner, interior worn out, burning 
> oil, paint peeling, and waiting for the scrap heap. 
>