October 2002  It was traumatic to see the EuroVan Camper go. We had a lot of fun and covered a great deal of Canada and the U.S. in the past 7 years. Lots of great memories! Not having the van means a major lifestyle change for us - but we still have all our camping gear and a great tent. I expect we'll pitch our tent somewhere in the southern US this winter. We also want to try B&Bs. It's time to try new things.

 Maintenance issues finally ended our relationship with the van.  We just got tired of trying to resolve them.

   During our last trip in September 2002, the check engine light went on and off quite frequently. This time I was unable to read any stored faults with my code reader. Could this be a sign that the ECU was going bad? Just one more concern to add to the growing list.

   Despite all the preventative maintenance, including regular transmission service, we also experienced a catastrophic failure of the transmission in 2000 and two years of trying to get the replacement to work properly was very frustrating. Our transmission failed on a trip across Canada - no warning - but at least close to a VW dealer who could get us back on the road again ($$$$$). There was no evidence of low fluid, or improper service.  Unfortunately there are too few VW dealers or technicians who can work on the EuroVan, and getting stranded is a real possibility. We are not "stay close to home" people, and we were experiencing some stress whenever we got too far off the beaten path.