Like the Trafic, these vans can be found all over Europe. If you've got nerves of steel, and several miles to get up to speed, the German specification vanagon tops out on the autobahn at just over 175 kilometers an hour -- just don't expect to stop, change lanes, or make any sudden turns at that speed. In short, the common rail injected diesel engine can propel the vanagon far in excess of what physics, vehicle handling, and common sense safely permit.
Unlike the Trafic, however, the vanagon almost never breaks down... unless you hit something on the autobahn at 175kph. With the rear-mounted engine and tiny radiator, your knees quickly become the front line of defense in a frontal collision. But, when a vanagon does break, assuming it doesn't disintegrate on impact, if there's anything left of you to order the vehicle fixed, there's a mechanic within an easy wrench-toss who can rebuild it as good as new. If the mechanic doesn't have the part on hand, he can get it, delivered, in under ten minutes anywhere but the most remote mountaintops in Europe.
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