Backup vehicle to your daily driven Vanagon?

[tjet]

[Steve M.]

Uber.
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This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them.

[RainierSyncro]

After 4 messy, frustrating and expensive years making my imported feuerwehr syncro a daily driver, the van has been reliable for 2 years now. If I have to dump it off at the shop, I'll throw in my 2020 Honda Monkey in the back and ride it home. My back up vehicle is an oddball Fiat Campagnola 4x4 imported 2 years ago. It use to be an ex-fire department vehicle from northern Italy. My friends keep telling me "why do you get the weird stuff?" The answer is weird stuff is cool. Strangely enough, the Fiat gets more comments from people than the bright red, jacked up Vanagon. Go figure...

[Zeitgeist 13]

2001 Volkswagen Eurovan Weekender.

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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[mrshrimp]

[Love My Westy]

My Vanagon is not a daily driver either, strictly a vacation vehicle. That being said, I do have a backup (or two) for it, my Dodge 2500 with FourWheel Camper is for doing Baja trips, plus we also have a Casita Trailer, and my wife has her PleasureWay class B motor home. In fact I hardly get to use my Vanagon anymore although it's my favorite.

[Zeitgeist 13]

We bought that in 2016, and have been kicking ourselves ever since for not buying one earlier when our kids were younger. It's such a delight to drive, and our kids really enjoyed the space and amenities when they were our travel companions. It's really the travel Swiss Army Knife package every Vanagon camper buyer is looking for. Comfort, power, reliability and safety. It's a full meal deal.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Abscate]

[Steve M.]

"Kid to college"
Grest pics!
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This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them.

[sanchius]

Since you ask...

I like vehicular variety, so the driving experience in our backup red Vanagon is the polar opposite of our tan Vanagon.

"To us, these first-gen Jaguar XKRs embody the very spirit of the vintage racing Jags we had campaigned years before: solid race-bred engines producing bags of power matched with competent & well-balanced suspensions, all wrapped in a particularly inspired example of Jaguar’s trademark curvalicious and stunningly beautiful body design.

Before we found this one, we were looking both high, at concours-quality turn-key beauties smothered in documentation detailing of years of loving care and attention, and low, at ground-up rehab projects satisfying my love of tinkering with and restoring classic Jaguars. Heeding advice that we would always regret not experiencing the supercharged V8 model, we narrowed our focus to the R version in either BRG or carnival red. After months of searching across the nation, we found exactly what we were looking for just over the pass in California: a beautiful running 1st gen XKR convert with a rustfree! carnival red body.

This example was low, very low. The honest gentleman selling it was brutally frank about its condition and had refused to sell it to anyone who didn’t know exactly what they were getting into. Requiring attention almost everywhere, its five cents on the dollar price reflecting the significant neglect it had suffered under a previous owner both strongly appealed to my frugal side and provided a clear measure of challenge ahead.

After convincing him of my mechanical and Jaguar bona-fides and seeing the amazing quality of his work on his XK8 and stable of American rods he had hand built, restored, and customized, we struck a deal; if he could get it past the stringent California emissions, we would buy it from him. It took a month or so of changing the fuel pumps, dialing in the fuel trims and sorting lots of fiddly bits out before it passed CA emissions. We closed the deal and drove it back over the pass to its new home in Reno."

The beautiful curved and arched Rainbow Bridge on old Interstate 40 at the top of Donner Pass. Bypassed years ago by the high-speed/high-volume I-80, I-40 is notable now for its spectacular mountain scenery, twisty corners, and low traffic volume. After plodding up this climb a number of times in my heavy underpowered VW camper, the powerful V8 supercharged XKR is truly in its element and simply wonderful at carving up these curvy mountain roads at speed; late braking into the turns, settling the suspension for a smooth, stable, late apex corner and powering out of the sweepers near (or just slightly past) the limit of adhesion.

Too twisty to go very fast, there is no drama, no surprises, just miles and miles of sheer, laugh-out-loud, driving joy in the crisp, clear, high-altitude sunshine.

We refer to this blessed state as achieving "The Rapture of Speed."

There's still plenty to do on this project, so once the Westy is finished, I'll turn my full attentions to the XKR

The backup backup car is an old Audi Cabriolet I built up from two wrecks years ago that we keep around as a guest vehicle.

"The Cab" has been totaled twice, so this boring and reliable appliance car has paid for itself multiple times over.
It is so well sorted now and so cheap to keep around that I hate to get rid of it.
But, having only driven it 100 miles or so in the last 6 months, it may be time to move it on to its next owner come springtime.

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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
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[4mymalamute]

If Sally the Syncro is taking a nap in the garage (like she is now for the winter) then I drive my 2012 Golf TDI six speed, or 2017 4Runner (for the dogs and snow), or the 2019 Audi RS3 (just to go zoom zoom in every so often)......but cant forget the Triumph Thruxton or the Triumph Speed Triple.....I have a problem I know.
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1989 Sally the Syncro.....she is a work in progress. 1.8T and tuned...she scoots up the hills...watch for flying dog drool out the windows.

1969 Bucky the Bug Convertible...red, rusted, work in progress....LOTS of work.

[nelinor]

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1983.5 VW Vanagon Westfalia - manual - EJ22
2002 Subaru Impreza Wrx
1990 Nissan 300zx tt

[Mathew Zelezen]

Sanchius,
We were just parked up on Donner Pass Road at the same pull out not an hour ago to watch the "Christmas Star" aka Saturn and Jupiter holding hands.

The little lady's Hyundai Tuscon is our "Emotional Support Vehicle" as we venture to different hospitals across the country.

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87 Syncro Tintop
~Rocky J Motor
~Steedle Trans


Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.

[Abscate]

[dougnlina]

I drive my '60 Rag when the van goes out for wrenching

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"Olive" a '60 Ragtop Beetle
"Grover" a '87 Syncro Poptop 1.8T

[markswagen]

nope, only vanagons here, 4 of them.
l don't want to, and won't consider driving anything else, the wife loves her carat, and won't be without it.
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markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

[Cobra88]

my 84 Caravelle

my 2004 Audi A4 Quattro Sport USP Tdi support vehicle

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84 (85) model year Caravelle GL 1.9 DG Auto WBX Bronze Beige Metallic w Steel Sunroof

[mikemtnbike]

[Zeitgeist 13]

Beautiful^^^

We didn't get all those awesome TDI models here
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[SCM]

Our van is only used for camping trips, hauling large items, and occasional drives around town during nice weather. Aside from camping/recreation, anywhere I need to go is within 5 miles of my house so the van barely gets to operating temp if I use it around town. We use these instead;

2017 Alltrack. This photo was from our T-giving trip to Moab. It's only the second road trip we've used it for since we usually take the van.

2018 Crosstrek. This was a surprise purchase after someone totaled my 94 Pathfinder which I intended to keep forever. Oh well. Ironically, this "daily driver" with only 15k miles is currently at the dealer getting a new shortblock installed. I think they botched the PCV valve recall last year although they aren't admitting that and instead tried to pin it on me for changing my own oil.

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'91 Westfalia GL Automatic (GTA "Turbo" Rebuild w/Peloquin) and 2.3L GoWesty Engine