Love the package, live with the flaws..

I fell in love with the VW EV the first time I laid eyes on it. There is something really charming about it, and that's good, because it will test your patience.

Though more powerful and much less quirky than the earlier VW bus, this '93 van has enough of what should be recall items to require a patient, mechanically minded, and informed owner. A few things will break over and over until you take it upon yourself to re-design them. In the year that I have owned mine the fuel and temperature gauges stopped working (there is a poorly attached voltage clamp in the instrument cluster - you have to take out the cluster and solder the part into the cluster's circuit board), the A/C compressor burned up, stranding me as it popped the serpentine belt that drives both the alternator and the power steering pump (you have to replace the a/c relay fuses and the dryer together with the compressor, for these fuses go bad, causing the dryer to clog, which causes the compressor to fail - many people just replace the compressor and it burns up again right away!) You get the idea.

The 109hp engine sounds like it really could not possibly do the job, but it is a torque-rich motor and so it moves the van along with surprising haste. Hills and loads don't slow it down much, either. The engine is geared really low. You will find yourself in 5th gear between stop-lights. This should not mean much, except that at 80mph the engine is spinning 4000rpms (it red-lines at about 5000rpms), which is very disconcerting. For a while, it feels as if you're going to blow the engine up driving it so fast, but eventually you acclimate to the noise and the worry subsides. Note also that this particular engine has a reputation for being bullet-proof, although there is a plastic coolant-hose coupling on it that is poorly designed and likely to fail at some inappropriate moment. This is why the failing instrument-cluster/temperature gauge is I mentioned above is serious. Stay away from the automatic transmission models, as these fail a lot and are extremely expensive to replace (more bad design - they have a circuit board inside that dissolves in the transmission oil, apparently), plus the engine feels extremely anemic with the automatic transmission. The manual is happy to cruise at 80mph for hours with a heavy load (2 people, 2 motorcycles, and lots of gear - about 1500lb total payload on 400mi each way weekend round trips once a month in my application), or take the kids to the zoo. However, the amount of noise in the cabin is quite high, and road noise is transmitted essentially undiluted for your listening pleasure as well, making the long trips more tiring than in other vans.

The EV is a small van rather than a minivan adapted from a car chassis. As such it has a heavy-duty construction with high payload capacity and cavernous interior, with an easy 4x4x8 foot cargo area. Removing the seats is not a "modern" experience, though. The rear-facing seats in the MV come off easily. The middle seat in my GL comes off with a little work. If you're a 6' 180lb guy with a hammer it won't be a big deal... The rearmost seat, on the other hand, requires a little re-design to get in & out regularly. On the plus side, this van is no longer than my Audi V8 quattro, so you can parallel-park anywhere a car can, and it can carry seven adults and a picnic-basket or three in spacious comfort. Keep in mind, though, that the A/C will be running often, as there are no opening windows in the GL model behind the front seats. Remember the remark above about the failing A/C? This is why it's a serious problem!

Because the van is so loud, I put premium speakers in mine and used the space under the front seats to install a CD changer and an amplifier for the stereo. This has turned out to be a very good expenditure, morphing the van into a rolling concert-hall. I have never done this to a car before, so I suspect it might make me like any car, but it certainly made me enjoy the EV more than before!
The interior is plain and utilitarian. Cloth seats & plastic elsewhere. It all works well and cleans up
fairly easily (important with a 2-year-old...) Storage is an issue, though. VW sells an accessory console that is highly recommended. There are accessory shops that sell after-market storage stuff that will come in handy, because with all that room you will want to keep more than the registration and three maps in there, and that's all the room there is in the glove-box.

The EV handles quite well as long as you put Bilstein shocks and proper light-truck tires on it. Way better than your average minivan, so you will definitely not hold up traffic on winding mountain roads, and it is a pleasure to drive. Controls are readily accessible, though it has a typical German pedal lay-out, with the break and gas pedals at similar heights an close together, as with Audi and their "unintended acceleration" hoax. I have big feet, and
have on a couple of occasions caught the gas pedal with the edge of my shoe while hitting the brake. Don't get me wrong - this is something you get used to pretty quickly and then it won't happen any more, but the one or two times it does happen are pretty freaky!

Finally, the van is pretty tall at 6'4", so if you're switching from a mini-van or car, you need to watch out for clearances in parking lots and stuff like that!
Overall, I love my EV and would buy another one, but getting to know each other was a pretty rocky experience... If you like even-tempered vehicles that basically do everything OK with no real strengths or weaknesses, this van is definitely not for you. But if you like vehicles that will rise to a challenge and surpass expectations in some areas, while being downright laughable in others, then you will probably warm up to the Eurovan as I have and have a happy and long life with it...