Hello Alan,

We have a 97 Diesel Transporter and we like it very much.  We've had it for
about five months now and we are quite satisfied with it.  Let me respond
to some of your posts:

>3,<bold>RPM     </bold>I'v driven the diesel and like it very much. The
>slowness of acceleration feels no worse than my Vanagon and I'm told
>the torque is really great and will feel about the same empty or fully
>laden.  My concern is  that it revs higher than I'd like at realistic
>highway speed. 120kph is about 3,800 rpm. I really don' t like the idea
>of doing 38,00 -4,000 rpm all day.  And really I'ld like to be able to
>go 130 or 140.

I have the same experience and concern so I normally only go up to 120 kph.
 I haven't really pushed it to 130 or 140 as I suspect that the revs at
this speed would be close to red line.

>5.      <bold>REPUTATION/FUEL ECONOMY  </bold>I'd be interested in any
>knowledge about the diesel version of these vans. All I've been able to
>pick up  from talking to people who own them or have experience driving
>them is that they have no serious problems and they all love the fuel
>economy (genuine 30 -  40 miles  to the Imperial gallon depending on
>speed and style, is what I'm consistenly told) But I'd like to gather
>as much info as possible.

The last time I checked, I get about 11 km/liter (about 41 mpg).  This is
combined highway and city driving with a lot of short under 10 km trips.

>Alan Pickersgill
>
>Ottawa, Ontario
>
>Canada
>
>'85 Transporter (modified as camper) 183,000km
>
Andy Chiu
Hsinchu, Taiwan
'97 Transporter