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Curious.
As far as the water-cooled, petrol-burning Super Beetle: It sure looks nice but as a [mostly] non-do-it-yourselfer, it looks too intimidating to me. On that basis, I am still not convinced.
As far as the diesel Vanagon is concerned, it was offered in the States only in 1982. It, like the water-cooled Vanagons of later years, had an extra grill for the radiator.
I would take issue about the reliability of the Vanagon diesel. I owned a Vanagon and I owned a Rabbit-based Pickup which had the same diesel as was offered on the Vanagon.
Shake, rattle, and roll? Sure. Power? Forget it. Fifty-two HP and 13 would be used if the a/c was turned on. But reliable? That Pickup never let me down (except when the air temps went to 0ºF and the diesel turned to gel).
Now, that diesel was nothing like the TDI I now have. In fact, my wife initially balked as she remembers Pickup less fondly. She called it the "Paint Shaker." She loves the TDI as much as I.
If I were to ever get a Vanagon again, it would be either a stock diesel or a TDI conversion. In many ways, I liked the (gas-powered) Vanagon I had more than the EuroVan Westy I now have. Indeed, the EuroVan's big and, perhaps, only advantage over the Vanagon is highway performance and reliability. A TDI would render that argument in Vanagon's favor as well.
Anyway, interesting responses on my musings of an air-cooled diesel. I learned a lot.
-René
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