Or BRG and a red interior. Or anything with a red interior. But it has to be a deeper red, like oxblood, and not that bright whorehouse red that too many manufacturers insist upon (and then wonder why we don’t purchase them, then using this lack of sales for justification for giving us only black interiors...)

Don’t get me wrong - I love the Vanagon. Between my mother and I we owned three of them, and with the exception of a couple of years in the late ‘80s, we have an ownership experience that spans nearly continuously from 1981 until 2002. Lots of good memories in these vehicles, and I still really want another one.

At half that price it might be interesting, particularly if a Coyote could be slipped in there (can’t LS swap all the things...)

My family frequently visited Hawaii back in the ‘80s, and out of all of those trips the best had to be on an old UA -100. It was only in coach but seemed like it was everything good about commercial aviation.

Why not? He’s had his head up there for a number of years...

I put the infotainment crap in there, hated it, and yanked it out three weeks later for a stock head unit with the 6-disc changer ($10 on Fleabay). More buttons=more better!

In other countries higher trim levels and manuals are not mutually exclusive; that seems to be a US phenomena. Personally, I like the lower trim levels - more comfortable wheels and tires, fewer gadgets to break, and cloth seats. My Mazda5 6MT is poverty-spec, but I’ve been adding many of the missing features myself…

Bought it new, never getting rid of it, at least not until someone makes another MT-equipped minivan. I’m not going to hold my breath...

I’ll have to do a little research on that as I don’t know the full history of why it’s named as it is.

It took me years of living in STL before I figured out where I-270 changed from north-south to east-west. Then it turns into I-255 before eventually crossing, you guessed it, I-270.

That is true, hence the ‘not in the US’ disclaimer.

Drop it a couple of inches, put some normal sized wheels and tires on it and paint the black plastic and I’d daily one of those. I’m already used to zero rear viability...

Nope - hasn’t been sold in years, at least not in the US. I have no idea what I’ll do should I ever have to replace mine :(

As a minivan aficionado, if there can be such a thing, I concur.

I have one of those rare Mazda5s with the 6MT and I absolutely love it. It’s precisely what I wanted when I went looking for a new car (box on wheels with sliding doors and a manual transmission), and at this point I have no idea what I would buy should I ever need to replace it. I’d surmise that I’ll find myself in…

After 5 years living in STL I went back home to SoCal in September to visit family and friends. Everything seemed wonderful and pleasant, as long as I stayed around the old neighborhood. As soon as I ventured out more than 5 miles from home I suddenly remembered the horror of LA traffic, and why I can’t really see…

This sounds a lot like my life. I had an ‘83 back when it was a year old. I got mine up to an indicated 115, however. And the handling? Someone once told me “turn left back there” and I did...

4L and 160 hp? Are you kidding me? Hell, my ‘99 Windstar had 150 hp from 3.0L. Advance 15 years and my allegedly underpowered Mazda minivan has 157 hp from 2.5L with two fewer cylinders. All of a sudden I feel like I’m driving a rocket...

1986 Vanagon Westfalia in this bronze color. Doesn’t need to be a Syncro. First year of the big 95HP engine (before they derated it to 90HP) and the last year of the beige interior. I don’t even want to go camping, but I do want the full-on camper version.

I can second that. I owned one, just one year old when I bought it, back in high school in the early ‘80s. Sure, the styling was a bit of a let down compared to European models, but it was a fantastic drive when it was running. Sometimes I wondered if that car had more miles on the back of a tow truck than it did…