Daily Driver?

Hi, at the moment our 55 plate aircooled Rio is a third car. The downside of that is that we pay for three cars! And I should use the VDub more to keep it all all going etc - mechanical parts are in my experience more reliable when used. Just wondering whether anyone uses an aircooled as their daily driver? Down sides would be fuel economy . And my commute is 20 miles each way - that means lots of miles, and altho' I love my Bay, the steering is not good in cross winds - it can be frightening!! Be great to hear if anyone does use theirs as their daily car, and whether they have had an LPG conversion to lessen the pain!

Hey, yes I use my airbus pretty much as a daily driver. I've also got a MINI so I split the journeys between the 2. As you say it keeps the mechanics moving, prevents corrosion forming by not sitting in one place permanently and shares the mileage out. If I'm off on a long journey that doesn't involve a nightstop I use the MINI for economy.

I've not heard of anyone doing an LPG conversion - I guess it is possible but given the peculiarities of the Kombi mechanical set-up would you not be causing yourself potential grief by introducing an extra system?

Also - not a huge downside - but you can't take LPG vehicles through the Channel Tunnel.....

I use my 2004 aircooled for my daily commute to work 15 miles away. The van is always parked outside due to being too tall to garage.

Since purchasing in September 2008 I have taken it from 11000kM to 29000kM without any real problems.

Have thought about LPG conversion and have been quoted abot £1000, however I would have to go out of my way to refuel which puts me off.

Longest trip to date is Bristol to Dundee in the snow last year, really great if you wrap up while traveling, very comfy when stopped overnight.

i am going to sell my ghia and use the bay as my daily dont do many miles if i find it uses to much fuel will get lpg for it had 3 lpg cars up to now run on lpg all run very well on lpg only down side to lpg very slow fill all the best daz

Happy new year to all from Danbury in Bristol! Just to let you know that most of our customers do use their campers as every day cars. The new watercooled engine model is far more fuel efficient than the aircooled model though and no tappets to adjust (hurray!) so if you think you will do many miles over a number of years it may be worth while adding up the cost to change and what this would save you? The new model can also run on bio fuel (E85) or unleaded fuel and as this becomes more available it may be possible to save extra ££ there aswell. Food for thought and you get a new car with a 3 year warranty and no MOT's for 3 years.....We take part exchange for any vehicle. It all adds up now fuel is £5 a gallon

jj123vw wrote:

Happy new year to all from Danbury in Bristol! Just to let you know that most of our customers do use their campers as every day cars. The new watercooled engine model is far more fuel efficient than the aircooled model though and no tappets to adjust (hurray!) so if you think you will do many miles over a number of years it may be worth while adding up the cost to change and what this would save you? The new model can also run on bio fuel (E85) or unleaded fuel and as this becomes more available it may be possible to save extra ££ there aswell. Food for thought and you get a new car with a 3 year warranty and no MOT's for 3 years.....We take part exchange for any vehicle. It all adds up now fuel is £5 a gallon

Ah, but I love the aircooled engine....which can be converted to LPG. But we are all on old technology now, as VW Germany has moved away from straight petrol injection to TSI engines - the little 1.2 TSI can develop 130 BHP! That would be interesting in a Bay!!

I have an Aircooled.......... and it’s used daily :-)