THANKS FOR ME MEMORY
Page 52
Page 53
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• We kept our Volkswagen Transporter for an extra two months, to ensure that the van completed its long-term test with a 32,000km service before being retested and returned to a grateful Volkswagen press office in Milton Keynes. Fortunately it survived this extension without any further bangs or scrapes.
The eight months since May last year proved a trying time for our Transporter as it plied its trade in an area mainly bordered by the M25. Multi-storey car parks were, in the main, its undoing. That, and other people's plain bad driving, were the cardinal reasons for the van's dilapidated state upon its return to VW.
During our tenure, we covered 34,268km (21,298 miles) in the beleaguered van. Most of that distance was fast, unladen motorway work, although it was used at gross weight on more than a few occasions.
Drivers were a varied lot, ranging from the most experienced road tester on our staff to the most inexperienced secretary. All the drivers noted their impressions down in the file, along with the distance travelled and a record of the fuel added. The result makes interesting reading.
We have made various tests of the VW's fuel consumption during its stay with us, including a full roadtest at gross weight, a half-way point assessment, and a total average. The laden van achieved a figure of 10.17lit/1001un (27.79mpg) when we tested it last year round our light van test route (CM 6 June 1987). The half-way figure for the long-term test showed a considerable and understandable improvement, as the van had then been running only part laden, with a figure of 8.3Iit/ 100km (34.0mpg).
The cold starts of winter and more fully laden operation have pulled the total average down to 9.281W100krn (30.43mpg).
Routine servicing has cost 2256.79, including VAT. This figure includes three lubrication services and a major inspection and service at 32,000km (20,000 miles).
We should mention a bill paid under VW's warranty scheme for replacing of the alternator belt and checking the charging system after losing the belt on a motorway one night.
After a trip to Scotland, we needed a complete set of new badges for the van, — though why Beastie Boys aficianados consider Edinburgh such a rich hunting ground for treasure is beyond our understanding. The cost of the replacement badges, and a new near-side wing mirror glass, was a hefty g30.51, including VAT and fitting. MV Trucks of Croydon and Colborne Trucks of Guildford have provided sterling service for the van. Finally, the topping-up process used around four litres of oil, a tin of de-icer and copious • amounts of windscreen wash, for which the Transporter has a prodigious appetite.
By far the greatest number of complaints against the Transporter concerned the gearchange. Over 40% of the moans centred on this area, mostly on the first-tosecond gear change that painfully trapped fingers against the dashboard and switched channels on the radio.
The change also baulked badly, which meant that after accelerating out of a side road in first gear, the van would not go into second. At this point the driver had to choose between leaping out of the van like an uncertain kamikaze pilot, or hooking first or third and either over-revving, or virtually stalling.
The position of the gearlever was also a cause of complaint, and many drivers felt the ratios were badly chosen as well.
The engine was generally liked, but some felt that the turbocharger made the performance too peaky, and others disliked the turbo lag. The power unit was fairly quiet, but wind noise and tyre roar drew plenty of comment.
It is far from our remit to act as music equipment reviewers, but the radio in the van came in for a fairly hard time. Apart from changing channels when changing gear, most people could not hear the thing above 96km/h. The speakers rattled. The tape player ate several treasured tapes. The wireless went wrong on several occasions. We were not impressed. The side loader door made loading easy for most users, mainly because they had small, heavy items that would fit into the lower section of the stepped load bed.
Anyone who tried to carry a long load in the van, or to put part of the load on the rear shelf above the engine, soon started to ask questions about the lack of tie-down eyes, and the awkward shape of the load space.
Visibility -from the driver's seat also came in for some comment: mainly about the lack of a rear wash/wipe to clear the opaque grime from the rear screen. The lack of an intermittent setting on the windscreen wipers was also seen as inexcusable, given the English climate.
In 1888 the first electric switch was designed by Sir David Salomons, and it is hard to believe that VW will not be making more of an effort to improve the Transporter's switch gear in this centenary year. Many of the drivers felt that the instruments could also do with an early demise in favour of 20th century examples. Most did not stop at the instruments; pedals, steering when loaded, the weedy" horn, and equally "weedy" headlamps all drew criticism. Most of all, people hated the heater controls that have now been slightly revised on later Transporter vans. It is impossible to determine just what the heater is up to simply by looking at the controls.
There were plenty of isolated complaints, but the other points brought up by more than one person include the handling of the van (interestingly a complaint that was confined to members of the technical department), squeaks, perceptible kickback from the anti lock braking through the brake pedal, and the van's susceptibility to side winds.
The Transporter will be missed, despite the number of complaints. The little van worked hard while it was with us, and the only time it went wrong it did manage to struggle home before announcing its intention to lie down and die.
If our experience is anything to go by, VW manufactures reliable vans. Which is good news if you like them, because they seem to last a long time: but if you can't get on with the Transporter's freebooting approach to load carrying, the association could be a long and painful one.