Wow... thank you everyone (and by the number of responses i received to this, i mean *everyone*!) for all your thoughtful responses. There is definitely a lot of food for thought there. There are a couple other things going into this decision that is making it more of a sticky wickett than it needs to be... part of it is my vowed dedication to alternative transportation (in the three years i lived in california, i maybe put 8k miles on it? mostly from trips up to oregon). So if i get everywhere by bike, why do i need a van (rhetorical question). Second is that we have been talking about it... and that's it. She is a doer, feeling more comfortable if action is taken, and i'm somewhat resistant to change at times (except moving up here to canda - excited for that!). It sounds like we are moving back towards the two-car scheme, and figuring out the most cost-effective way to import her honda into vancouver. But if it really came down to it, i'd have to pick my wife over my van :-). Some commonly mentioned points particularly included that of the safety of the van, citing the volvo crash test, as a testament to it's safety... this actually only illustrates her point that the van is not a safe vehicle in the bigger picture. Probable net result of van-volvo collision? Van driver OK, volvo driver dead. Probable net result of two volvos? Both drivers OK. Probable net result of two vans? Let's not think about that... And honestly, i agree with her. A vanagon is precariously close to an SUV in that respect (but cooler in all other ways). For those of you who pointed out the root cause is money... you're right. It's amazing how easy it is to gloss over the cause when pointing at a symptom is so easy to do. We've started looking at it again in more of those terms (it's where we started, and then got stuck on the van) and will hopefully find a better solution. Thanks for all the thoughts, and i'll try to reply individually when i get enough time. -Damon ===== '84 Westy (Sparky) w/2.3L WBX (wow... it actually works!) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/ |
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