Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 22:49:56 -0800
Reply-To: Doug in CA <vanagon@ASTOUND.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Doug in CA <vanagon@ASTOUND.NET>
Subject: Re: Car talk bias - a little off topic
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I really like Tom and Ray and listen in at least once a week for a good
chuckle.
Its too bad they have never been bitten by the VW "bug" as so many of us
have.
Perhaps they need a trip to the outback for some fly fishing in a well
equipped syncro westy.
What other vehicle has had such a classic soulful appeal as the VW BUS!
I suppose the american vans have had many mile put on them with lots of
travelling memories.
But there is something very (use it again) "soulful" about the VWs little
rear engine IRS suspension, manual shift, (mostly) underpowerd but well
handling, vans.
They seem timeless. Movies like "Field of Dreams" are made with VW Busses
and they just seem "right".
I was just on a construction job site this week with my 89 Wolfsburg and we
were doing a fence job (4 of us).
I know it never rains in California but we were getting a good down pour.
The boss showed up at lunch time with some hot burritos.
I looked at everybody's pickup truck on the street and told the guys "got a
dry place for lunch" and opened the slider on the van.
Popped out the table, turned over a couple 5gal pails to make a couple seats
and we all huddled around the little wolfy table and stayed nice and dry.
Like a little conference room. At least we had a place to set our drinks
down. It was the ONLY dry place around that we could have used.
Gave the guys with the Tacoma's and Z-71s a bit of a reality check. Plus my
tools were dry.
Oh, well, you can try to teach, but you cant make em' learn.
Doug
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jere Hawn" <jghawn@EARTHLINK.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 6:49 PM
Subject: Re: Car talk bias - a little off topic
> Hi All,
>
> IMHO
>
> Our vans mean a lot to us and a lot of us cannot explain why, it's just a
> feeling. One article I read (I think Consumer Reports) had it criticism
and
> rated it with the pack of other vans they were testing but there closing
> comment said, (sic.) "all things aside, each day when they took a lunch
> break, they all piled into the Vanagon and left the other vans there to
wait
> for their return." I think that says a lot about our vans. Its
simplicity,
> functionality, comfort, and the interior atmosphere that promotes
> camaraderie among passengers surpasses all the competition.
>
> Jere
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Jim Felder
> Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 7:49 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Car talk bias - a little off topic
>
> On Feb 24, 2005, at 9:06 AM, Al and Sue Brase wrote:
>
> > Sorry, Kim, but I can't agree about the 1500, nor with much of anything
> > else the Car Talk yokels have to say.
> > 1500:
> >
> I have to chime in here, after all it isn't every day you can criticize
> a sacred cow like Car Talk and get away with it, all of us having been
> trained to believe they know everything about cars. It's like how
> people get offended when you say Garrison Keillor isn't funny, people
> acted like you called their mother something.
>
> Anyway, not long after I bought my 90 vanagon new, I was driving down
> the road in it and car talk was on. Someone called in with a question
> about a vanagon. You would have thought the caller had said something
> about Mrs. Tappet. They couldn't avoid shouting over each other about
> how bad a car the vanagon was. "Worst handling car ever made" was one
> of the comments, and there were many more, and it seemed to me that
> they not only had not driven a vanagon, they were talking about some
> other car they hated. The characteristics they were complaining about
> were opposite of what I thought I was driving at that very moment.
>
> Their parting advice to the caller: Wait until next year, VW is coming
> out with the vanagon's replacement the Eurovan. Wait and buy that, it's
> a much better car.
>
> : )
>
> Jim
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