What's Wrong with the 3rd Generation Vanagon?

Front 3/4 view of a Volkswagen Vanagon

The 3rd generation Vanagon started in 1981 and runs to 1990.

Its PainRank™ score of 0.68 ranks 15th out of 46 eligible generations in reliability. Although more complaint data is needed to make this score more accurate. If you have a story to share you can add your complaint here.

What Owners Complain About

Sometimes it helps just to tally up the complaints and see where the biggest stacks are. Use this information to learn about troublespots or to run for the hills.

Worst Issues

Worst Topics

Worst Years

By the Numbers

  1. 2 model years

    Grouping all models by their year can reveal some baddies.

  2. 2 complaints

    Running tally of owner grievances filed to CarComplaints.com.

  3. 15th in reliability

    Overall reliability rank out of 46 eligible generations.