How did your Vanagon get its name?

[Vanuber]

[vino de vano]

I was inspired by the color obviously, but like a fine wine she's gotten far better with age.

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what a long strange trip it's been

[Mathew Zelezen]

Wolf.
Because he was made in Wolfsburg Germany.

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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.

[SyncroHead]

[SyncroHead]

Mine was inadvertently named by Ralph, formerly of Van Cafe.

Ralph had a sticker on his Syncro (named Captain Crunch by the way) that read "GOSTEWY". I thought it was clever.
My Syncro was originally named Schildkröte Grün, German for Green Turtle. It was sort of hard to say and harder to spell. "Hey, let's take Schildkröte Grün!" didn't exactly roll off the tongue either.

So, he was recently renamed Stewy. Makes sense because Stewy is not a Westy!
Now I have a sticker that reads GOSTEWY and also give out the stickers at Syncro Safari, so others can urge Stewy along too!

Jim Davis
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"A Vanagon? It's not a car or a van. It's a hobby!"

Check out:
www.VANAVATION.com
www.SyncroSafari.org and
www.Vanagons.org

[Xevin]

Link



My wife Xatie names the VW’s. We bought the Van from our neighbors dad (original owner). He called it “The dream machine” but that’s not a proper name. Xatie felt the name was Gary. Beige, understated, cool , and someone you want to have a cocktail with around the campfire.

There you have it. “Gary the dream machine”
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Keep on Busin'

[Abscate]

Werner Van Braun, SHIRLEY. I actually met him in 1968, just before he died.

Vanuaru is Casey’s least favourite portmanteau
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.ssS!

[dieseltdi]

Skye, obviously because of the medium blue color and the cloud white top.

[sbw]

@sbwsty

I got my van back before Twitter went off the rails, so all my vehicles had Twitter handles:

• @sbwsty
  
• @sbwvw
  
• @sbwabbit
  
• @sbw550K
  
• @31L
  

But they never tweeted much, and we don't use Twitter anymore.

My niece named my latest addition Sylvie. I call it "the tow vehicle," even though I don't yet have anything to tow.

[Red Ryder]

[RasBobre]

Salty.

Business vehicle for Sierra Saltwater Systems. I have a few customers that expect to see me actually pull up in it. Yeah, right.

[Vanagon Nut]

On a summers' night at a camp site, as I listened to a recording of Jaco Pastorious (a definitive electric bass player) booming out of my van, and stared at the "chestnut brown" paint on my slider door, I thought about Jaco and the form vs function of my Westy; each was so flawed yet so perfect.

Jaco.
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1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[sanchius]

Hummmm, I've never told anyone here this...

When we were living in Boulder and our kids were very little, there were a cool group of college students up the street with a well-traveled green high top bay that had obviously been to Baja & points south many times, with "Le Tortuga Verde" painted on front of the high top. Something like this:

Every time they went past it, the kids always exclaimed "Look, it's a pickle!"

Years later, we acquired our Syncro Westy and, since then, _every_ VW van, yours, mine, split, bay, modern, essentially any in existence, is generically described as "A Pickle" and our VW van is referred to as "The Pickle", no matter what color, type or year it is.

And here's Grace Potter and Joe Satriani tearing up "Cortez the Killler" just because it's so awesome and somehow it captures the spirit of our experiences with The Pickle thru these many years... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paeNnR33i5Q
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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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