Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia
Chris Hafner: The Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia doesn't have much to offer the enthusiast. Even the normal Vanagon was a slow, lumbering, ponderous, wheezing vehicle; only comparison to the original VW bus--a legend of slow motoring--would make the Vanagon look fast or agile. The Westfalia camper package, with added weight and higher center of gravity thanks to its tiny kitchen applicances and a pop-up sleeper tent roof, was even less athletic. The best thing that could be said about a Vanagon Westfalia on a twisty mountain road was that it was slightly racier than an RV.
What the Vanagon Westfalia offered was a dream. Like a turtle that moved slowly but carried its shelter on its back, the Westfalia's self-contained habitat offered the driver some real options. Heading down to the supermarket to grab some groceries? Fine, but if you feel like continuing your trip to, say, the Rocky Mountains, you've got a built-in camping spot. Why drop the kids off at school when you could just keep rolling up to the Yukon Territory to do a little fishing and hiking with the family?
Never mind the fact that you'll probably sleep uncomfortably in the claustrophobic sleeping space, have a difficult time cooking anything on the tiny stove, and if the weather traps you inside with a few people for any length of time, you'll develop a nearly lethal strain of cabin fever. The point is, with the Vanagon Westfalia, you can do these things.
I mean, how cool is it when your everyday transportation can double as an apartment? No other everyday vehicle carries as much potential for adventure--albeit slow, ponderous, relatively uncomfortable adventure--as the Westfalia line of Volkswagen camper vans.
Big Chris: Allow me to regale you with a brief rebuttal of our deluded leader's fondness for the Vanagon. The time was 1984 and I found myself, along with my family, trapped in my aunt's air-cooled 1980 Vanagon. It was at that tender age of 10 that my hatred for the Vanagon was cultivated, and then repeatedly reinforced in subsequent years. We were traveling up the mountain from Loveland to Estes Park in Colorado. For those unfamiliar with this drive, it's a road you want to test drive the Ariel Atom on--steep and endlessly winding. You should know that when I was younger, I was prone to car-induced motion sickness. Every time I was in the mountains until the age of 14, I would get car sick. The Vanagon was unable to induce my car sickness.
To call it a slow vehicle would insult the Amish horse carriages which lumber along with the bright orange triangles on the back. Three-toed sloths move so slowly that moss grows on their backs, and the Vanagon moves only slightly more quickly. The Vanagon was an inadequate design for flat land usage. How my aunt thought it was a good idea to load it to the hilt with her relatives and then attempt to wheeze our way up the mountain is beyond me.
We had to stop at every curio shop on the way up. Not because we wanted something, or needed to go to the bathroom, or because there was something there of interest--no, that would be too reasonable. We had to stop four times on what would otherwise be a one-hour trip to allow the POS air-cooled engine to cool down to generate enough horsepower to keep on going. I imagined at one point traffic was backed up behind us to Denver. The only advantage to a car this underpowered is that you always have a clear path in front of you. Three hours later we made it to our destination.
Years later this Vanagon met an untimely death with an engine fire that immolated the rear end as it once again chugged its way up to Estes State Park. Why couldn't it have died before being inflicted upon poor innocent me? Unfortunately, I wasn't along that day to revel in the glory of its death.
My secondary dislike for this vehicle stems from the fact that they are only slightly stronger than a balsa wood airplane. There is nothing to them (the earlier ones) to give you peace of mind that you'd survive an accident with anything larger than your average teenager on a bicycle. So when Chris wants to take you camping in a Vanagon, know that all the bears are looking at you like you are a Slim Jim in a cardboard canister on the store shelf.
Chris Hafner: You were in an air-cooled Vanagon? Ooh, ouch. Yes, those ran slower than molasses at the South Pole. The water-cooled Vanagon was excruciatingly slow, but the air-cooled Vanagons and VW Buses were among the slowest passenger cars ever made--like comparing a healthy but slow tortoise with a rotting animal carcass. Those vehicles established a level of slowness that wasn't simply sedate and conservative but was overtly unsafe. Has there ever been another vehicle as criminally underpowered?
I could be insultingly glib here by saying something like, "Well, we've established that the Vanagon isn't exactly a race car." It's definitely worse than that brush-off would indicate, but I think it's true that the Vanagon doesn't exactly inspire visions of opposite-lock adventures. There's not an expectation of speed here. At the same time, I think you're ignoring everything that makes the Vanagon special and wonderful--especially the Westfalia camper. After you and your family eventually struggled up to Estes Park, annoyed and hot under the collar, did you all unwind by singing campfire songs while popping a package of Jiffy-Pop on the Vanagon's delightful miniature stove top? I'm betting you did, and you enjoyed every minute of it. Admit it!
Even if you had been stranded at one of those curio shops, the Vanagon Westfalia makes everything okay. I am convinced there's no better converter of road-trip lemons to lemonade. The Ford Taurus traveler, confronted with an immobile vehicle and fading daylight, would be nearly frantic to find lodging and safety. He would be willing to pay any amount of money for a terrible room at a frightening roadside inn.
Not so in the Vanagon--the world is your campground. Say you were stranded in a curio shop parking lot, you pop the top, fire up some dinner, and hit that curio shop the moment it opens its doors the next morning. Take that, curio fans--if you want to beat Big Chris to the carved novelties, maybe you should get a Vanagon Westfalia too.
Big Chris: I think the only thing we might have been willing to do with the stove was burn the Vanagon down!
David Colborne: Has there been another vehicle as criminally underpowered? Yes--it was called the Renault Dauphine. Of course, that you can mention a Vanagon in the same space as the biggest waste of Marshall Plan funds imaginable does not bode well for its performance pedigree. ...
Mochi Mochi: What was the 0-60 time? My old Squareback's time was about 16 or 18 seconds.
Big Chris: I'm not sure the air-cooled Vanagon could hit 60 going downhill with a tail wind--a hurricane-forced tail wind. It would have a hard time hitting 60 falling off a cliff. It is a brick-shaped vehicle with only slightly more power than your neighbor kid's moped. VW should've offered The "Barney Rubble" option with holes in the floor boards to use your feet to push.
David Colborne: The Renault Dauphine could do 0-60 in a mind-blowing 32 seconds. The car was so bad, Time Magazine listed it as one of the 50 worst cars of all time. I still want one. :-)
Chris Hafner: Yeah, I want a Dauphine too. But of course we stray from the topic. If you're not comfortable loafing along in a stock Vanagon Westfalia singing 2,678 Bottles of Beer on the Wall to fill the time on what would otherwise be a one-hour drive, I'd investigate whether a Porsche or Subaru boxer engine might fit. Maybe an all-wheel-drive Vanagon Synchro with the Forester XT's torquey turbo four might be a slightly spicier dish?
Probably a bad idea, though--you wouldn't want to subject your happy campers to excessive G forces. There's nothing worse than making s'mores with fragmented chocolate bars and graham crackers.
There are lots of great Vanagon and Westfalia resources on the web. Westfalia.org is a great resource, and many of the advertisers on that site specialize in selling VW Westfalia fans of all vintages as well as Westfalia-specific accessories. The top image of the white Westfalia overlooking the Pacific Ocean is from Aloha Campers.com, which rents VW Westfalia campers to tourists in Hawaii--a fantastic concept that makes me want to visit Hawaii and cruise around it in a Westfalia as soon as possible.
The interior shot is from a personal page that describes the joys of living with a Westfalia--an interesting read. All of the other pictures come from RoadHaus.com, another dedicated Westfalia site. In order, the Vanagons were contributed by Paul Rogers, Jean-Guy Bernier, Heather McCauley, Brian Clifford, and Tom Kirk.
The video is "a genre criticism of contemporary car commercials," but it works just fine at illustrating the Vanagon Westfalia's innate charm. Interesting music choice.
Euro Vanagon Fan on July 13, 2009 at 04:29 PM
Hi, not sure whether anyone will read this on this old blog, but I smiled reading all of your comments about how slow the Vanagon with the pop-up top was. I felt like you all are missing a point. It is not about the everyday use of the car, that is fine, and I used mine daily when I had it. It is about the versatility of the thing going absolutely everywhere, even in rugged terrain to make your "home away from home" in the coolest of areas. I spent days camping out on lake shores with not a soul in sight in mine.
Yes, it did indeed make it up the mountains, slowly but steady. Rear engine making sure it would always have good traction, wet road or gravel. And with all our groceries in the back "opposite lock" was something I would have associated with locking the sliding door rather than taking any corner quickly.
Bad weather evenings inside the van were really cozy (admittedly we were together for a short time only and knew what to do in tight spaces...). Tea on the little stove, watching neighbors deal with flimsy tents and their Jeeps, we slept "upstairs" while leaving our "living room" the way it was.
And here comes the cruncher: I am German so my Van was a ... (brace yourself)Diesel, a normally aspirated non-turbo 57hp 4-cylinder diesel with all of 1,6 liters... So, you guys should really be grateful for 1 $ a gallon fuel in the 80s, while Germany was at - say - 6.50 for gas and 4.50 for diesel.
And to make matters worse, I had personally chosen a wonderful conversion from a company called "Carthago" with really wonderful materials and a full extended roof. Full standing height for me (6ft2) and a double sleeping bed while downstairs could remain untouched. Only trouble was, in a straight line you were pushing a car the size of a barn door. And still, it ran about 70mph all day for about 40 mpg, so I did like it, and I do miss it.
There you have it.
gary on October 04, 2009 at 11:02 AM
hi i have a vanagon in uk . it is 1987 westfalia .it came from LA . i am trying to find the last owner in the USA.As it is still going well .can any one help . i've only got the vin number ...........
Jo Torina on January 31, 2010 at 07:28 PM
I HAVE A 1988 WESTFALIA THAT I AM LOOKING TO SELL!
I JUST PUT IN A NEW COMPUTER AND I AM HAVING A HARD TIME FINDING PARTS, SO THAT IS WHY I AM LOOKING TO SELL!!!
THANKS!
jo Torina on February 01, 2010 at 08:33 PM
I posted a comment 1-31-10, I would like to elaborate.
The 1988 Westfalia is a one person owned, I have put a lot of work in the engine including a new computer. The reason for selling is that I am apprehensive driving a distance from the city in fear of something going wrong and not being able to get parts.
I have taken GREAT care in this Wesffalia inside and out. It has been my home away from home for 22 years.
I am hoping someone would take care in enjoying this Westfalia as much as I have.
Thank You
Jo
Ted B. (Charging Rhino) on March 09, 2010 at 10:37 AM
My family had a 68 VW camper that was my mother's everyday ride. In the summers we'd start-out on the East Coast and go 3000-4500 miles in two weeks to Canada, the Rockies or The Midwest with 7 people, luggage and gear, plus a fully-loaded full-length roof-rack. Never had any problems climbing passes as long as you picked a low-enough gear...even Estes Park at 5600#gvwt. She's cruise 65-mph with your foot flat on the floor (who needs cruise-control), and 45-mph in a vicious head-wind in third flat-out. You just tacked in a cross-wind through underpasses like a racing sailboat.
A great car for covering ground, we'd run Philadelphia to St Paul MN in 19-hrs with two or three drivers alternating.
Archie Demarest on May 05, 2010 at 12:31 PM
In 1961 we lived in Proctorville Ohio. Dad bought a camper bus - pre-Westphalia - and we headed out West. First stop the Tetons, onward to Flaming Gorge (under construction), Telluride, Colorado Spring then back to Ohio. We moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming 6 months later.
We towed a 1959 Ford Anglia to Cheyenned behind the Camper. We did back roads because the poor thing not develop legal speed. The process jerked the guts out to the Camper so we got a new one.
I spent many wonderful childhood hours cruising slowly around the West. Yay VW.
Richard on May 05, 2010 at 01:09 PM
My mother owned several VW campers: 1971, 1976 and 1980 models. The 1980 was a vanagon. It was inferior to the original camper in all its interior organization of the camping necessities. Although it had more creature comforts (air conditioning, a fancier fridge instead of an ice block fridge, a built in stove), it was inferior for actual camping and ownership. It broke down more often than the previous models. When it did break down, it was more expensive to fix. I was an owner of a plain vanagon, and I experienced the same shortcomings. Newer isn't always better. Even with the underpowered engine and no a/c, I'd still rather have one of the original Westfalia campers.
tigerstrypes on May 06, 2010 at 03:27 PM
I know how to cure the Westfalia's ailments. Just do what these guys did:
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/tigerstrypes/Awesome%20Machines/Porsche%20Machines/?action=view¤t=65059_003.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/tigerstrypes/Awesome%20Machines/Porsche%20Machines/?action=view¤t=65059_002.jpg
Eric on May 06, 2010 at 10:01 PM
I learned to drive in the vanagon and have nothing but fond memories. We had an 84 vanagon (maybe a few years earlier ) and before that a bright orange vw camper van - pre westfalia. Good times. (Let me caveat that my first car was a 1980 AMC Eagle, yellow withe fake wood paneling - I dare you to find a worst first car in the late 80's).
The vanagon took six people on family vacations twice a year. And fully loaded did 80 on the interstate. It was made easier when drafting a semi. Of course the engine had to be rebuilt after every road trip. My old man knew the value of speed and wasn't afraid to take advantage of a fast moving semi from the four corners thru Cheyenne. Repeat thru Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and back into central Washington. Note, the trip started in central Washington. The trip to four corners (or LA, etc) was only the first half.
I tried to convince my wife that we needed a Eurovan - no luck. She just couldn't see the bizarre cool factor in it. The damn thins could hold multiple sheets of plywood in the back with the rear door closed. He'll, most trucks can do that without the wheel wells getting in the way.
Drop a Porsche engine in (or subaru) and now we're talking fun!
victoratashian, on August 24, 2011 at 08:33 AM
excellentvanihopevwcomesoutwitha2013orsooner
ihopevwcomesouywithanew
modelvanagonverysoon.