Faults:

Electrical issues with the dash panel.

The serpentine belt, when it fails, wipes out the cam belt too, bending the valves - a very expensive repair.

Plastic coolant parts fail.

Rear brakes always out of adjustment, causing the pedal to hit the floor during hard braking.

General Comments:

Had Vanagons before. Would buy a new Vanagon over a Eurovan any day, due to it being wider with more usable space.

Faults:

My VW Eurovan has and is serving me and my family well!

I have owned this van since Mar. of 94, and did not pay for the extended warranty.

The one thing that I found out early in my ownership of this vehicle is that there are not too many mechanics that could work on it, so I did not trust them to work on it.

In the time that I have owned the van, there have only been two mechanics to only work on it.

With in the warranty of the van, I had the piston replaced at 10,000 miles, due to scorching of the piston walls, and at 70,000 had the transmission replaced with factory upgrade.

After 120,000 is where I feel I had to put money in to the van, and considering the age and mileage, I was feeling good about it. If you have ever owned an American vehicle, you put money into it long before 100,000 miles.

I have mechanics replace ball joint, lower control arm bushings, CV joint RT & LT and front wheel bearing due to maintenance and parts wearing out. In all these repairs, I have provided the parts, which has saved me a lot of money by looking online for the lowest prices.

Other than that, I have been able to do most of my own maintenance on the van. The Eurovan has only failed me twice; at 140,000 I lost the coil, the van would not start. Ordered the part online $75.00 later started up.

And at 196,000 this funky piece of plastic in the distributor fouled the router and broke the coupling, $250.00 for one I ordered online, plugged it in and turned right over.

I am going to replace the idle control valve next, due to the unsteady idle that it has, $158.00. I hope that it repairs the issue.

General Comments:

The Eurovan is not for every body, it requires a lot of TLC, preventive maintenance and tinkering with little issues before they turn into big ones.

Faults:

Heater blower became noisy - a common problem with the vans. The fan does not have an "Off" setting without turning off the entire system, which probably exacerbates the problem. The part is not expensive, but the repair takes a lot of time - factory process involves discharging the A/C!! There are other ways fortunately.

The van has been plagued with intermittent no-spark problems. This problem has been fixed twice and the van is still broken down. After extensive diagnosis of ignition and fuel systems and wiring harnesses, it looks like the ECM (computer) is bad.

Parts are expensive, and not easy to find at regular retailers. VW specialty shops are the best source.

General Comments:

In North America, these are unique vehicles. The MV Westphalia model has the pop-top and bench seats that convert to a bed, but no stove/fridge using up space. It seats 7 people. The kids love the rear-facing seats and fold-out table.

They are heavy vans (5,000lbs) and with a 109hp 5 cylinder, you don't win races or get great mileage (around 20mpg), but overall it is a good compromise for a big van that seats 7, sleeps 4, and is not too large to use in the city.

The ride is a bit rough and noisy - this is basically a 1/2 ton commercial van. Steering is a bit slow, but accurate; road-holding is good especially for something so tall (higher than car-based minivans).

Shifting the 5 speed is easy enough. Avoid the automatics - they are less reliable and extremely expensive to repair. 5th gear ratio is not tall enough for quiet highway cruising - 3,000 rpm is common at freeway speeds.

Owning these vans is not as easy and can be more expensive than mass-market Japanese, Ford, GM or Chrysler products. Parts are harder to find and can be expensive; they are "different" to service and some mechanics have trouble.

Many people who own these vans really love them. There are good resources online for advice, information, and so on. Poptopheavean and gowesty specialize in service, repairs, and resale of all sorts of VW Vans.