Lanval wrote:At the risk of turning this into an unnecessary dogfight, I offer this in a spirited defense of the vanagon:
1. To Colin I say that the vanagon is the product of the same engineers who gave us the earlier VW vans. Though it did indeed change some aspects of the engineering, I won't allow you the paradox of claiming that the VW engineers were somehow possessed of supernatural insight when designing the previous iteration, but succumbed to evil when working on the VW. don't forget that marvel that is tooling up the hill I live on at 60 mph. Not in your van; not even on its best day.
2. To Dtrumbo I say that you are right if you mean the iconic and appealing image of the earlier rounded van, but! That is not the soul alone, I'm afraid. Countless people have asked me to look inside, and peer around eagerly as I explain all that the vanagon offers. They are stunned and engaged; it is more modern and comfortable than the older vans, and the camping interior is well-designed, convenient and fun. it is a VW and... it. has. soul.
Dogfight?
I owned a brand new '89 GL and loved it for 110,000 miles, it was a superb road machine with brilliant handling and gorgeous visibility. Vanagons have plenty of irritating plasticky trashy compromises of cheep that no early Bay will ever beset you with, ever.
Just the voice of experience . . .
You KNOW I love driving your Vanagon and get all agitated about buying another one, you heard me say this is the Pinnacle of Van Design. Design!
It is also a representative, however, of Volkswagen's precipitous decline in quality and their growing mid-Eighties indifference to engineering elegance.
I think dtrumbo is exactly right-on in the intangibility of the soul of earlier VWs. They were closer to the genius that spawned them (Porsche) and the genius that made them remarkably crafted (Nordhoff).
That they were slow did not escape my notice . . .
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles