Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 07:21:49 -0700
Reply-To: wilden1@JUNO.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: SUV Bashing) was Think Positive to start your new year
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Recently my neighbor came over for a visit.
He is looking for a project for he and his oldest boy (now 12 years old,
to work on together).
With the hopes that it'll be the son's first car and he'll have some
respect for something that he had a hand in rebuilding / restoring.
He had a slight fancy for my 912e Porsche for this project.
The neighbor drives a 2003 Porsche Carrera and mentioned trading it
because they now have two children at home (Boy 12, Boy 2 months) and
between he and his wife have 4 other children at various other homes that
visit twice a month.
His thoughts are running towards a new Chevy or other GM Equal of the
Suburban or a Ford Excursion.
His Wife currently has a two year old Land Rover (the big one with the
huge roof rack and the Rhinoceros killing bumper kit).
Knowing that the Big Boy toys seldom ever are acquired twice in a
lifetime I suggested that he just rent a full size Chevy, Dodge van twice
a month for the visitations.
Budget Rent A Car has a $49.00 weekend rate on passenger vans and Lincoln
Town cars for pickup Friday after five and return Mondays before 9 AM.
All in all a lot less expensive over five years than taking a whacking on
two cars with losses of first year depreciation on his Porsche and the
beating the new car dealer is going to give him on his new purchase.
Something to think about?
Stan Wilder
On Wed, 1 Jan 2003 21:45:50 -0500 Stephen Steele
<steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET> writes:
> As it is inappropriate to this List, I will avoid the recent
> political bent
> this thread has taken and try to return it to Mr. Wilder's original
> POSITIVE
> nature.
>
> My 26 yo son recently forwarded a brochure to me for the first SUV
> that I
> would ever even think about owning... a H*nda Element. The test
> drive
> impressed him. He is a little cool on the performance of our vans
> (drives a
> VR6 GTi), but is beginning to open his eyes to a more useful
> vehicle.
>
> The VW designers would do well to emulate the thinking that has gone
> into
> this open platform concept. UTILITY is the main design parameter.
> Utilitarian is the effect achieved. It has the requisite retro look
> and Gen-
> X marketing approach that seems prevalent in the outdoorsy vehicle
> target
> market. At 22 (city) and 26(hwy) the mpg isn't great but it beats
> all but
> our diesel vans. It comes in vanilla and deluxe 2WD or 4WD
>
> 4WD all dressed up brought the base price of ± $16K to just over
> $22K out
> the door. And it's made by my Buckeye neighbors to the North ( East
> Liberty?).
>
> I still would prefer the Westy and even the Caravelle (Carat) over
> the
> Element but as these vans get longer in the tooth, it is becoming
> easier to
> imagine owning a newer replacement.
>
> Just MHO.
>
> --
> Stephen Steele*
> Chillicothe OH
> '91 Caravelle "Hans"
> '87 Westy "Franz"
> '84 Westfalia "Fritz" on loan to my nephew
> '81 Diesel Rabbit "Ol' Yeller" by PO
> '82 Caddy VW Diesel P.U.
> '90 Jetta GL 17 yo Sons' "together" car
> '74 MGB My first car...yep, I've kept it since '74
> '93 Chevy S-10
> *all rights reserved/no portion of this document may be reproduced
> w/o prior
> written permission
>
>
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