[FC] What's in a name?

[mclark67 at charter.net]

There is no definitional problem.  Let me start by saying I don't own a Greenbrier but I do own a Rampside.  I've owned 3 VW Busses.

The Volkswagen was the first minivan.  Now for the record VW called it a "station wagon."  They may not have done a great job, but it was the first mini van.  Once again data has been tortured to say what someone wants it to.  By saying it wasn't the first because it isn't an American design means nothing.  By saying it wasn't the first because it drove poorly in the wind means nothing.  By saying it wasn't the first just because you don't like it, well you get my drift.

As far as better, I don't know.  I've driven a Greenbrier, and driven my Rampside quite a lot, and I have to say I prefer the Bus hands down.  I don't get any more adverse driving characteristics than any other brick-shaped vehicle.  Besides that, the Bus came out in 1949, and the family ended somewhere in the late 80s early 90s.  The Bus morphed into the Vanagon, which in the beginning was just a squared off Bus, then the waterboxer in the same Vanagon body.  That's about 40 years of a vehicle.  The Greenbrier lasted 4 years.  The successor of the GB was a flat nose van that did not do well at all, and was a different family.  Actually it doesn't appear to me that any of Chevy's minivans have done all that well.  There has to be something said about longevity.  Oh I know, it doesn't count because people like their Volkswagens more than people like their Chevys.

There was a post on VV not too long ago I wish I would have saved.  It was a writer that said Corvair people were the worst because of how anal we are.  I had to laugh because I thought it described our group to a "T."  Of course there was an uproar.  This is exactly the thing that gets bad press on our cars, people saying how much better the Corvair is and then we play the beaten down underdog.

Now, I don't want to come off as sounding anti-Greenbrier.  I would like to have a Greenbrier, I'm sure I'd enjoy it.  But give the credit where it is due and get over it.

Just my 2 cents here.


Mike Clark
Stockbridge, Georgia