I am new to working on cars and am interested in buying a VW Bus or similar vehicle that has a simple and reliable mechanical design that I can work on myself (having read the right books), and find parts easily. I have always heard the VW microbus is simple mechanically and very reliable - do any other vehicles compare? Did VW ever make a diesel version of the bus (so it could be modified to run on cooking oil) ?
Thanks in advance for any information.