When Martha and I moved out of Northampton for Bellingham, WA we sold her Honda Accord my Bugeye Sprite & Beater Boston Whaler and got one of these. If I Recall Correctly (IIRC) a 1980 VW Vanagon. It was at a garage on the way from our apartment (the Yoshi Apartment) to Paul & Elizabeths Natural Foods (where I was cooking at the time - Best Banana Cream Pie Ever). Anyhow we drove it for many memorable years until a Needham Mechanic irreversibly screwed the CV joints. Oddly enough we sold it and bought another one exactly like it (same color and everything) that was one year newer. If one was to buy a VW van, this is/was the year to own. A well sorted fuel injection system and air cooled, it had one belt and that was it. O.K. so the heat was the equivalent of having a big dog in the cabin, and it was slow as all get out. But it was simple reliable and roomy. Also, it taught Amy Strong how to drive manual IIRC tho I could be wrong.
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We had one just like it from '85 to '92'ish, same color even. It had an enormous unassisted bus-like steering wheel, about 2 weeks from lock to lock, and a floor mounted shifter with I dunno, maybe 3 ft of shaft that made me feel like I was rowing a boat. We did have an electric heating assist system that was optimistically named. Still one of my favorite vehicles and one I may grab within a couple of years just because I can.
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