Date:         Sat, 1 Feb 2003 22:19:30 -0600
Reply-To:     Chuck Hill <hilltech@NETINS.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Chuck Hill <hilltech@NETINS.NET>
Subject:      Frugal to the nth
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

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.  Now if you're
really into running it forever and spending nothing, and that's the
challange, then that's OK.  Actually I've done that myself, but
realistically I don't think we're quite there as a group.  Doing the
little things that keep your wheels pleasant and running dependably are
simply unavoidable.  Replacing the wiper blades once a year or so, a
door handle every 10 years--whats the big deal.  Just do it, and have a
vehicle that you can stand to drive.  Drive it gently, and it will last
practically forever.  I get compliments on an '84 that shines like
almost new, and more satisfaction from it than one that really is new,
for its 15 minutes anyway.

I had pizza tonight with a guy and his wife who spent maybe half an hour
telling us all the things that have happened with their new Chevy Blazer
type thing.  It was a long list, and some of it was really kind of
annoying, I'll admit.  He's seriously thinking of using the "Lemon law"
to get out of this one, and into the car he thought he was buying when
he parted with all that money.  The payments on this thing add up to a
VW rebuilt engine every 5 months.  His gas mileage is 12MPG.  My gosh,
folks, we can take really good care of ours, and like them to boot.

By the way, my rabbit diesel is so rusty I just can't drive it
anymore--the door falls off, and I can't find another body for it, but
the engine still runs OK, and I was wondering if anybody knows if I can
sort of graft it into a Geo body or something like that. The junkyard
here has a long row of them that are still shiney bright.  Please Pmail
me.

Chuck Hill