The VW van

I remember the night I drove into Montreal for the last time in the Routan. The next day it got gets traded in for something with a lower monthly payment and much better gas mileage (more on that later).

The stories that van could tell are many. From its awkward arrival in my life as I desperately needed to get out of the ridiculous (but oh so fun) Mercedes R350 (when the infamous Gord’s implosion was ramping up) to my exodus from the prairies two years ago with everything I owned crammed into it… The Routan saw my fall from grace and subsequent reinvention. It was expensive, it was only slightly reliable, it was creaky but when called upon it drove six of my friends and three of my dogs mountain biking every Sunday and ultimately took me back home to Quebec so I could start rebuilding my life. 
I’ve never been easy on my vehicles, just ask my friends Matt, Dean and Dean… But I’ve always loved my cars and they have always become an extension of me. (Like many people and their rides I guess). So many road trips were had with the Routan, so many moments where it was packed with my friends at a moment in my life when I needed them the most. 

She drove me to work when “work” consisted of indentured servitude to BMO’s trustee, drove me to my two shrinks during a period in my life where I could not have survived without them. It pampered me with every option a vehicle could have (it was the very definition of “fully loaded”) at a time when I worried whether I would be able to put food in my fridge. It was never easy making the large payments on it. Not at the beginning, not at the end… But I made them nonetheless. And when times were extra tough, VW Credit Canada was always ok with pushing back a payment now and again. Amazing folks to deal with. Same went with Volkswagen Roadside Assistance (I used them more often than I likely would have liked but when I needed them they were always there for me). Class acts. Everyone at Volkswagen (except for the bad people who sold it to me initially) were excellent.

I’ll always remember loading her up in front of Steve’s for the last time. Making sure everything fit. As I packed her for my move back east after coming to the sad conclusion that I didn’t have a future in Manitoba. 

Certainly my most cherished memory of “the Van” is that fateful return trip to Quebec. Such a difficult solo drive cross country via the south shore of Lake Superior stopping only now and again as I pushed forward in a mad 24 hour dash to Owl’s Head. Both sad for leaving behind my dogs, my friends, my adopted Winnipeg and excited for a chance to get back on my feet where I had began my career in the mid 80’s. I drove through North Dakota and Minnesota across the top of Wisconsin and Michigan and through Ontario via North Bay and Ottawa… I did the 2400 km trip in 24 hours flat and I’ll be the first to admit I should have stopped and gotten some sleep at the Qc/Ont border.

I would say to Quebec folk who scratched their heads as to why I owned a van “Everything I own fits in that van” and since moving here I kept it that way. Not everything I own will fit in the next vehicle I own… And it’s not because I got more stuff. As a matter of fact, as I type this it still has Mb plates on it. Simply because part of me still lives there… After all, I just came back here for work. All that is going to change today. Her and I are not going back to Winnipeg. My life is here now. And I no longer need a rolling silver 253 horsepower storage unit. 

So there she sits, outside of Zoe’s here in Montreal. Scratched up, dented and well worn… 114,340k on the odometer, a cracked leather driver’s seat and a bit of dog hair in every nook and cranny. Unsuspecting that I’m about to give her up (unless Tuesday’s Quebec mechanical inspection tipped her off). I still think she looks great. That silver VW paint still looks fabulous on something that big, the OEM mags look great and the little spoiler that Volkswagen chose to slap on it to further distinguish it from it’s Chrysler cousins still looks badass on a van. I know I’m one of the only people to find minivans hot… And I’m never going to apologize for that. Two box vehicle design has always been my favourite.

Last night I drove it here from Sutton like it was stolen. This thing was actually fun to drive to me. The Chrysler 4.0 V6 was a gas pig but it hauled ass when pushed. And I loved the sound it made above 3500 rpm. As I type this I remember something Marina once said to me as I drove her home from Gord’s on Donald in 2012 “your van doesn’t sound like a van” (that had made my day back then) no, it didn’t sound like your average van because one of the things VW did when taking this Dodge and making it more VW-ish was to fool around with how the thing felt, handled and sounded (at least that’s what I read). True or not, I decided to believe it. 

I could go on, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that I’ll always have fond memories of my van, it’s amazing sound system, huge sunroof and driving dynamics… But what I’ll miss most are the great people I hauled around in it and all the good times we had in and around it. It will live on in my vehicle hall of fame next to the Mercedes R350 and B200, the E350, F150, the Audi 200 Quattro, the Mazda 323 GTX, the Renault 18 Sportwagon, the 1972 Ford Bronco and of course the 1980 Ford LTD Country Squire as cars I look back at with particular fondness for reasons beyond reliability and acceleration. 
Like the Hutterite said to the other Hutterite; “She was a good van”