An example of what a VW Campervan can go for in my neighborhood

If you'll permit, I can perhaps present the other side of the debate (i.e. why Westfalias are an unpopular choice).

For starters, I, and the vast majority of people who would not purchase a Westie to vandwell in for more than a couple weeks a year, do not hate them. The VW bus is the iconic road trip vehicle. It would be killer on Instagram. But also on your wallet and maybe your mental health. I'll expand on this below.

Westfalia-Werke is first of all a conversion company, just like Roadtrek or Funcraft. None of the Volkswagen vans were initially designed to become campers anymore than the B, E, or G series. It's all in the conversion company, and Westfalia was good at cramming a lot of things in to their conversions, but not all of it was so great.

It's the general handy man vs plumber idea. A handy man is pretty good at many things, but not great at anything. Hiring a plumber would be a better choice to hire to fix your sink because the handy man might get it done but it's not going to be up to standard. I believe VW people prefer to call this the "Swiss Army knife of vehicles" but would you want to do everything requiring a tool with a Swiss Army knife? No. You wouldn't.

In the same way, Westfalias are not fun for anyone who is too tall to fit on their beds, wants to refrigerate food because God knows the fridges in those things do not work, or wakes up in bear country in the middle of the night and needs to use the toilet because there's no room for one of those in there in addition to your cooler that you need to replace the fridge and whatever else you have crammed into the tiny amount of open floor space. The pop tops are only fair weather usage and probably the least stealthy option as far as city dwelling so if you're in Vancouver where it rains a lot of the time, you're going to find yourself only using the lower bunk which makes the upper one kind of useless. Wind also renders it impossible to use.

They're incredibly underpowered, and the engine's most notable feature is catching fire. Even the water cooled one. They don't work without constant maintenance. That's why people put Subaru motors in them, and that rear engine position is not good for the new motors either. Rebuilds are going to be a constant thing. VW never really figured out how to build a functioning automatic transmission so if you buy a bus with one of those inside it you need to find a manual one asap. And that cool design? Incredibly unsafe in an accident. The crumple zone is you.

You can do a lot of work on the engine yourself, but if you can't get it done, no ordinary mechanic is going to be able to get it done for you. You need someone experienced with those engines and that means more in tow costs, more in labour, and more in parts. I envy the guy who owns GoWesty. He's set for life.

And it is going to break down. A lot.

VW's were designed to be vehicles for the people. Their main attraction was their affordability, not their reliability (That's also why you find so many in South and Central America.)They can't even make that claim anymore.

Their owners are also a bit... elitist. VW's are just vans like any other. Maybe worse than most actually. There was a guy advertising an app on here a while ago that was for "van lifers" but only those with VW's. He couldn't understand why people were unimpressed. After all, the only real #vanlife superstars drive VW's, right?

Synchro people are an entirely different breed. Scarcity drives the price up, not functionality. I'll leave it at that.

Apple, at least, can back up their tech. It's expensive because it works, with minimal effort from the buyer. Not so much can be said for the VW. People buy them for the look, because they had one as a kid, or they always wanted one. Not because they actually work.

In conclusion, I would love to own a VW bus someday. When I'm retired and the furthest I'll be driving it is around the farm and in to town. Not for travelling the continent. I'll do that in my shitty old E-150 that costs pennies to repair and makes it to my destination with minimal stress.

There's nothing wrong with owning one, but you need to go into it knowing the whole story. Not just the Instagram one.

/r/vandwellers Thread Parent