Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 10:57:27 -0600
Reply-To: John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: Frugal to the nth
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Chuck Hill wrote:
>Folks, sometimes I'm just amazed at how little some of us want to spend
>on owning a set of wheels. People ask about fixing the unfixable
>instead of just biting the bullet and replacing it.
>
I see these types all the time as well. Run a vehicle to death, do no
maintenance, and then complain about what a piece of junk they have when
it stops and leaves them on the side of the road somewhere. Also, there
is the type that gets the biggest, baddest machine they can, and they do
the same thing. I've got a couple of kids that are kinda that way. Big
bad machines, big bad payments. Pickup trucks over $30 grand apiece.
That's $60 thou... They rag me all the time about my old Vanagon. Fact
is my old 88 GL is paid for. If I'm out of work, nobody's coming to
re-possess it. If they have a ripple in their employment, they start
sweating.
Let's see, here's a little equation for you. 2Trucks@$30K equals $60,000
divided by $5000(Av. cost of Vanagon and I'm being generous - Westy's
not included) equals 12 - Vanagons that could be purchased for the price
of those pickup trucks. So if I did not buy 12 vanagons, but bought 10
instead, and set aside the cost of two vans -$10K - for a maintenance
reserve, and drove a van for 2 years and then pushed it over a cliff, it
would take me 20 years to use up my supply of vans. Now I'm age 63 - so
10 Vanagons at 2 years each would make me 83 years old, at which time I
might just keep the last one, and since I most likely wouldn't be
driving that much anymore, put it up on blocks out in front of the house
( red-neck ancestral blood kicking in) and go out and sit in it once in
a while for old times sake and fond memories of good trips past.
As for my current van, I spare no expense on it. I despise being broken
down somewhere or not being able to go when I want because some
maintenance item was not taken care off. The key word is "Preventive"
maintenance. Preventive maintenance includes replacing some parts
"before" the end of their service life to avoid unscheduled shutdowns
for repair/ maintenance. One does not run a set of tires until there is
a blowout before replacing the tires. You cannot pull an airplane over
and park it on a cloud because something broke as a result of bad
maintenance, but the vans are not airplanes and things are not quite as
critical on the vans, except for a few safety items, like brakes. But
good maintenance will up the reliability of the vans significantly, and
make life a lot more convenient. One thing, I never "cheap-ass" on my
maintenance. Pardon me, but if my hydraulic pump goes out, I am not
going to put a used pump on except as an emergency to get me to where I
can put a new (properly overhauled or brand new) one on, because I don't
want to be bothered with likely having to go through it all again. And
possibly out in some really inconvenient place - like maybe on the
Alaska Highway 100 miles from anywhere in any direction.
Ok, I will get off my maintenance soapbox.
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
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