Thanks to everyone who responded to my earlier post about trying to find a
newer mini-van that might replace our '85 GL.  Based on the
overwhelmingly negative responses I got to the idea of replacing a Vanagon
with any other sort of mini-van my wife and I have reconsidered our
situation.  Someone's comment that "Vanagons are not normally noisy" has led
me
to replace the "high performance" muffler that was on the van.  I can tell
right away that this will seriously quiet the van at highway speed.  Also,
based
on the speeds that people said they were driving in their vans, I no longer
feel too worried about long drives at 4/5 redline.  We've also decided that
in the future it may be easier for us to travel to the cabin less frequently
but stay longer so that 5 or 10mph slower on the way there and back really
won't matter.

So now I'm finally finishing up the interior mods (putting in a table and
rear facing seats) and we'll just put away the money we would have spent
buying a newer van.  Given the van is 14 years old we'll just have to use
some of that money for repairs as needed.  My only remaining concern is
winter driving as this van
sucks in the snow.....maybe we'll get some chains so at least we don't get
stuck.  Also, the salt
on the roads up north will eat up the Vanagon pretty quickly I think, but
hey no daily driver will last forever anywhere in the NE.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who responded.  Although it should have
been an easy decision to simply decide to continue to put up with the
Vangon's endearing shortcomings
rather than spend money on another mini-van with it's own set of weaknesses,
I credit this list with helping us make the sane choice.  Nothing like
seeking advice from a bunch of passionate vanagon nuts!!!  Truthfully, I
suppose I wanted to stick with a Vanagon all along, otherwise I would have
posted the question to the Chevy Astro list ;-)

Thanks again,
Mark