Date:         Thu, 30 Aug 2001 10:22:45 -0700
Reply-To:     Matthew Pollard <poll7356@UIDAHO.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Matthew Pollard <poll7356@UIDAHO.EDU>
Subject:      Washingto Post article on vanagon.com
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=X-UNKNOWN

Here is that washington post article in cased you missed it. Sorry for the
html.
-m

Enthusiasts Wanted

By Don Oldenburg


As I write this, my '90 Volkswagen Vanagon is undergoing surgery to replace the broken water pump that snapped the alternator belt, which started to drain the battery and overheat the engine, which triggered the coolant overflow tank to blow out a neon-green Jackson Pollock splat on the pavement.

First thing I did when I got home? Went online. Hey, ain't virtual life great? But this was just another info-packed, repair-solving day on the Vanagon Mailing List.

While I love my Vanagon and curse the day a decade ago when Volkswagen stopped making the famed box-on-wheels minibuses for export to the U.S. market, lately that passion has extended to an Internet discussion group where Vanagon aficionados worldwide converse via e-mail daily, sometimes hourly, to probe in maddening detail the vehicle and the subculture surrounding it.

Why this fascination with cylinder heads and brake pads? Why is an ordinary guy like me (no klutz with a box wrench but no mechanic) glued to the Vanagon Mailing List from one day to the next like it's a discount-bin Grisham novel at the beach? It must be the same reason I'm compelled to look over the mechanic's shoulder at the garage. It's my car, darn it, and I don't want to miss anything.

"Let's face it. We are sick, sick, sick individuals," overstates Tom Carrington. "There is something about this Vanagon obsession that makes us act a bit goofy."

Carrington is the webmaster of the Vanagon list. A member since 1995, he has run the group's list server from his home-office computer in Silver Spring for the past three years, ever since a succession of Vanagon-enraptured webmasters double-clutched it from Minnesota to California to British Columbia before parking it here.

A former boat mechanic who traded outboards for computer keyboards a decade ago, Carrington got hooked on Volkswagens early on, starting as an eighth-grader in 1980 when he helped his father restore a '65 VW Beetle convertible. Since then, he has worked on other VW species -- including two Beetles he and a buddy took apart, then reassembled in the second-floor library at Good Counsel High School in Wheaton during his senior year.

Today, like many of his fellow listees who indulge their Vanagon vanity or just want to preserve a vehicle whose numbers are dwindling, Carrington owns more than one -- a 1985 Vanagon Crew Cab, an '81 Westfalia Camper and a '65 notchback with a blown engine.

"The list is a way for the owners to band together," he says. "Not every mechanic can know the quirks of the beast, and even fewer parts stores stock spares. Ever go to Trak Auto or Pep Boys for Vanagon parts? Unless you need something simple like wiper blades, spark plugs or oil, forget about it. Water pump? No way. Ball joint? Gotta be kidding."
<h1>Drivers Wanted</h1>
Likened to "a giant coffeehouse with a thousand rooms," online discussion groups have been one of the Internet's inarguable successes. Spawned by every devotion and dereliction imaginable, thousands of niche-dedicated talk lists attract millions of outspoken participants and tight-lipped lurkers.

The Vanagon list is no exception. When Gerry Skerbitz founded it in 1994 at the University of Minnesota as a know-how trading post on all types of VW buses, 78 subscribers signed on in the first month. Members now number about 1,000 -- not counting readers tapping list content from the Web site archives <em>(</em>http://gerry.vanagon.com<em>)</em> without signing on.

Joel Walker from Alabama, one of the list's pioneers, used to keep the "Weakly Statz" database on member demographics. The typical list member, he says, is a 30- to 40-year-old male, married with at least one child, who needs the utility of a Vanagon. "There's nothing available, not even from VW, these days that allows such a combination of utility, economy and ease of driving," says Walker, adding that the non-camper models carry seven people plus luggage and get more than 20 miles per gallon.

As of his last census two years ago, before the university where Walker works unplugged his mainframe, more than half the Vanagons owned by list members were campers. More "kids" and women were subscribing, too, as were members hailing from international locations -- from Mexico and Canada to Australia, Japan and England. "It's not just us good old boys anymore," says Walker, figuring he's no longer the typical member, since most list members own only one Vanagon and he owns three. "And I seriously doubt that many folks on the list have a bedroom and a garage full of Vanagon parts."

Walker compares list members to extended family, like the cousins your parents made you go visit. "Some are okay, some are fun to talk with and be around, and others are just, well, relatives," he says. "It's a bit odd that a vehicle is the lodestone that draws us together -- but you know the old saying, misery loves company."

Like when a coolant hose ruptures? Or the sliding door sticks? Within hours, sometimes minutes, members who post woes hear from members who have been there and done that. "It's a group of folks I can ask for help when I need it on my buses," says Walker. "It's an opportunity to help someone else when they need it on their buses. It's a chance to pass along the things I've learned to . . . people who recently fell into the clutches of Siren Vanagons."
<h1>Everything You Wanted to Know . . . </h1>
On any given day, the number of e-mails passed on the list ranges from a dozen or so to hundreds. On a recent Tuesday, 133 messages included topics ranging from two junked '84 Vanagons at a wrecking yard in Lancaster, Calif., to inquiries on installing water pumps, to an announcement of a fall get-together in Golden Gate Park.

 Occasionally, conversation veers to the frivolous or fringe: One poster recently wanted to know "who owns the custom-painted Westy from TV's Nash Bridges?" Another asked what you grill when road-tripping (One reply: "Why, whatever I hit, of course!"). Like old bus engines, the talk can get overheated: "When people bring up stuff like gun control, abortion, anti-Semitism, the list can go nuts," says Carrington. The five most revisited threads, he says:

• I'm thinking of buying a Vanagon. What should I look for? Are they reliable?

• Which tires should I buy?

• What is the silver socket thingie on my dash?

• Which antifreeze should I use?

• How do I unsubscribe?

But nuts-and-bolts dominate -- questions about sloppy four-speed shifters, flashing red-light mysteries and broken odometers. Donald Baxter of Iowa City, Iowa, says he first discovered the list's mechanical benefits after trying to replace the coolant in his Vanagon and getting stuck halfway through the process. "I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to get the thing refilled," says Baxter, who posted a plea for help and in minutes got phone calls from Skerbitz and Walker, who talked him through the procedure.

Chris Wyatt, a 32-year-old geologist in Fairbanks, Alaska, estimates he saves hundreds of dollars annually repairing his '87 Syncro GL (Syncros are the all-wheel-drive models) using the list's archives. One of the original members, he no longer subscribes because of increased non-Vanagon bickering and spam, he says. "But I'm still checking the archives weekly."

For Tom F., a 54-year-old Takoma Park resident and federal employee, "the traffic became so huge and the questions predictable." And although he left  the Vanagon Mailing List for a smaller, more specialized Syncro list, he insists he's going to host the annual Mid-Atlantic Holiday Fest this December, which is open to all Vanagon list members anyway. Too many friends not to.
<h1>It Takes a Village to Repair a Vanagon</h1>
 And the friend stories abound. Steve Schwenk couldn't believe it when he found out a list member he had been e-mailing about Syncro stuff for about a month lived within sight of his house. "It turned out his Syncro was made the same day as mine," says the San Francisco trial attorney, "and he had a daughter the same age as my daughter. Our families have since become very close."

For an online community "nestled squarely in the backwaters of the Net," as Alan Bosch calls it, the list is more diverse than you might figure. Occupations? There are cooks, lawyers, mechanics, entrepreneurs, government employees, salesmen, chemical engineers, college students and retirees -- even one presumably hard-luck fellow who lives in his Vanagon. Various sexual orientations are represented, as well as the spectrum of political persuasions. But there's always one thing in common: Vanagons.

"I would not hesitate to offer assistance to a list member in trouble," says Bosch, 42, who stumbled upon the list before he bought a Vanagon. "Tools, parts, coffee, a place to park for the night. Many on the list feel the same way. That's why when someone posts they are going cross-country or crosstown, there are many invitations that begin, 'If you need help, I'm located in . . . .' Do you think the Dodge Caravan list is like that?"

Derek Drew once got an e-mail from a list member in California begging him to look after his van. "They had rented it to a couple who drove it across the country, with it breaking down all the way," says the D.C. online entrepreneur, who keeps every post since 1994 on his laptop to search for technical solutions for his '90 Syncro Westy.

Drew looked after the abandoned Vanagon for two months until the owner showed up. "People in the neighborhood could not believe somebody I did not know and have never seen entrusted their van to us this way," he says.
<h1>Endangered Species List</h1>
 For a VW outsider, such loyalty for a make and model manufactured for only 11 years, until 1991, for export to the United States might seem peculiar. Carrington thinks the fact that fewer of them were made adds to the loyalty. "Not many people are loyal to their Ford Escorts or Toyota Camrys. They are a dime a dozen," he says. "Vanagons appeal to independent thinkers who don't feel the need to drive a car that fits in with the crowd."

Meanwhile, the number of members increases every month as Vanagon owners shift from being drivers to being enthusiasts.  "Many of us won't give up our Vanagons until we or the van dies," says Carrington, predicting that the list will get smaller over the next 10 years but appreciation for Vanagons will increase. "At the end, there will just be a bunch of old crazy die-hards."