I have an '88 Westy, and with the caveat that it has all the famous problems
that  Water-cooled Vanagons are known for,  I think it is great.  It is fine
as a commuter.

Things that I see as minuses against a Westy are:

1.) Seating arrangement  makes it a bit hard to hold a conversation with
people in the back seats - however, depending on who is sitting in the back
seat, and how you feel about them, this may be a good thing.

2.) If you have the models with the taller springs (mid 88 and earlier), you
may not fit under some garages. A potential problem for parking in some city
areas.

3.) The fridge. Even on its good days, it is a marginal unit (IMHO)

Of course, one of the pluses is that if you take your Westy to work, you
always have a place you can take a nap during lunch. <g>

But the biggest plus of having a Westy is that you can use the on-board water
tank to hold extra water to refill your cooling system en-route when the
headgaskets start to leak. This saved me from being stranded in the middle of
nowhere once.

Todd
'88 Westy

pmunce wrote:

>      I have always wanted to buy a pre'92 VW Westphalia and of course I
> now own a VWVanagon.
>
>      My fear has always been the same as that of a boat owner. The two
> best days of a boat owners life are when he buys a boat and when he sells
> his boat.
>
>      My Westfalia would be mostly used for my commute to work and an
> occasional outing or road trip.
>
>      Any advice would be much appreciated. My biggest hurdle will be my
> ego as I am slave to it.
> Thanks, Patrick.