Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 10:47:30 -0800
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: one van for two people... part 2
In-Reply-To: <20031120205245.9982.qmail@web13114.mail.yahoo.com>
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Hi Damon,
I think I'm probably pretty well positioned to address your questions,
since:
1) I live in Vancouver
2) I have a Vanagon
3) I have a H*nda C*v*c
4) I too am committed to alternative transportation, and seldom use our
cars.
Your issues:
1) Depending where you live, public transportation can be excellent in
Vancouver. I live on Commercial Drive, close to SkyTrain, and it takes
me 14 minutes door to door to my downtown office using SkyTrain.
There's no way I could drive it that fast.
2) If you have the money, a car's a really good thing to have in
Vancouver. It rains. A lot. For 7 months of the year. I don't like
riding my bicycle in the rain on dark cold winter nights, so I drive
the car for big grocery shopping or to drive the 10km out to ride the
velodrome (http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca). I probably use the car
only 2 or 3 times a week, but it sure is nice to have.
3) For around town, I gotta agree with your wife, the H*nda's the thing
to have. It's excellent on gas, it *never* breaks down, *never* burns
a drop of oil between oil changes, and *always* runs perfectly. It's
kinda creepy, actually. I just wore down it's first set of tires at
85K, and it's the first thing (short of scheduled maintenance) I've had
to put in to it. Oh, it did burn out a turn signal lamp, once.
4) I'd never sell my Vanagon westy. One of the things about living in
Vancouver is you're just an hour or so away from getting lost in the
mountains, or getting on a ferry to Vancouver Island, or... I use my
westy strictly for camping and "fun" trips, like heading up the valley
and bringing back 12 huge flats of freshly picked berries. I take it
off the road every winter and store it (right now it's in my
underground parking, where I hope to fix the pop-top canvas, replace
the transmission, and flush the cooling system over the winter.) Since
I use it just for fun, the miles on it stay low, so my maintenance
costs stay lower.
5) Ask yourself how much you could get selling your Vanagon vs. the
enjoyment you get out of using it as your fun vehicle. Would the few
thousand dollars you could sell it for really be worth it in the long
run? Do you really need to run it all year 'round? I know for us, the
westy provides us with a (relatively) inexpensive way to get family
holidays and short weekend overnight camps in, and to go to places we
just couldn't get to in the H*nda. It's also great for heading down to
the beach. I'm never taking my H*nda 100km up main line logging roads,
nor 20km up decommissioned logging roads to get to good camp spots. I
smeared my propane tank nearly off last summer as it is; my H*nda would
get hopelessly chipped, dented, and trashed driving roads like that.
My Vanagon gets smeared, scratched, and twisted routinely, but it's an
older vehicle and it's built strong enough to take it (most of the
time). The H*nda's built for civilized driving, so I drive it
accordingly.
So, do you *need* two cars in Vancouver? No. Do you *want* two cars
in Vancouver? Quite possibly, if you want to get out and use the
vanagon for things it's designed for. Do you need the Vanagon insured
and on the road all year long? Maybe not. Will you really gain that
much by selling it? You won't get much for it, and it sure is hard to
buy a good one later if you realize later you want one again. If
you're tight for cash, maybe think about taking it off the road and
storing it until spring.
Just a few thoughts; hope you find them somewhat useful.
T.
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Tobin Copley Vancouver, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
SPEED KILLS! [. = .| clatter!
Drive a Vanagon diesel ~-()-==----()-~ ~ ~
| 
