This van wasn't much but I sure liked it at the time. After hanging around with a guy who had a '67 Westi bus I really learned how veristal the westfalias could be. You can leave them loaded with gear, water, food, etc and leave on an adventure at a moment's notice. I customized this van with lights, guages, electrical, etc. I knew this thing really well and wondered why other outdoors people didn't ALL have them. I owned it for 4 or 5 years and drove it many miles.

On a climbing trip to Colorado and New Mexico it bent a valve. The van sat in a Taos, NM shop for over a month. After everything was said and done I was out over $2000 for all the work and hotel/flight home/rentals. When I finally got the van back it was never the same and it only saw a few thousand miles before the "new" head also died.

The moral of this story is to really consider the vehicle you are going to have repaired. Is it worth it? Do you plan on keeping it? Will it be cheaper to buy a new rig instead? If travelling, would it be safer to have the vehicle trucked home to be repaired by your normal mechanic?

In the end, I feel the van probably would have been ok if it wasn't for the complete CON pulled on me by the mechanic in Taos, New Mexico. Can't recall what they are called (you guys know who you are!!!), but they are pretty much the only gig in town and are located right on the main highway going through town.

In a nutshell, after leaving the van with them I called for a month and a half trying to get a status on the work. The owner kept telling me to be patient and that it was "it's almost done, call back in a week". After they said it was complete, I flew to Albuquerque, rented a car, drove to Taos to pick up the van late on a Friday afternoon just before closing. I went out to the van and found that the motor wasn't even entirely put back together. There were loose bolts and pieces laying all over in the engine bay. Disgusted, I asked to see the shop owner who was, of course, out of town. Steaming mad I watched as some grease monkey put the parts back together and I was off for the 35 hour marathon trip home. It wasn't until a month later did I realize that they didn't even have the distributor tightened! I'm sure that this, in addition to other incomplete work by this lousy shop, led to the premature failure of the engine.

So... whoever reads this be warned before having your Volkswagen Vanagon, Westfalia, Bus, etc worked on in Taos, New Mexico. The repair shop there is run by a theif (even though it came across very nice on the phone). Hopefully they have by now been shut down and they no longer pose a threat to other unsuspecting victims.

Care to comment? Did you get ripped off by them, do you know their name, or are you THEM? Feel free to email me; I'd love to hear from you. My addr is (this geocities site name) (at) y@h00 d0T c0M.
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