Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 07:14:36 -0500
Reply-To: Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Car talk bias - a little off topic
In-Reply-To: <006a01c51b06$37d77cf0$640fa8c0@ttower17def>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
The main thing you have to know in order to understand where "Click and
Clack" are coming from is a shop mechanic's point of view. In a
mechanic's shop time is money. Most shops go by book time which means
they use a standardized book that tells them how much time each job on a
particular vehicle should take. At this point working on the vehicle
becomes a race against the clock. If you beat book time then you are
actually making much more money per hour than your hourly rate (normal
hourly rates are usually between $50-95 per hour depending on where you
are in the country). If a job was supposed to take 2 hours according to
the book and you can get it done in 30 mins then you just made 4 times
your hourly rate! However if you come across a problem or something you
have never dealt with before, this will slow you down and now say a 2
hour job takes 4 hours, you just made half of what you would normally
make.
This shop time mentality is the key to understanding why "Click and
Clack", the VW dealer, and most other mechanical shops don't like to
work on Vanagons or Eurovans. Here are vehicles that are different than
95% of the cars that they see. In order to get good at working on them,
it will cost the mechanic valuable time/money. Most of the time they
are not willing to take this extra time to learn about Vans since they
probably would normally only see one, once or twice a year. If a shop
does bring a Vanagon in usually the mechanic with the least seniority
will be the one that gets to work on it (since he has no choice and the
other mechanics can opt out). So now you have the most newbie/worst
mechanic in the place working on a quirky vehicle. They spend a bunch
of time on it, and then it comes back because they didn't do something
right. Now the van gets the reputation as a "problem" vehicle. And it
IS, from the mechanic's perspective. It is holding him back from his
race against the clock, and now he hates it!
I was called into a VW dealership where the junior mechanic screwed up a
Vanagon so badly that he finally got frustrated and quit. His nickname
at the shop was "Hack" by the way and after seeing his work I understand
how he got it. When I arrived and took out my Bentley Manual the other
mechanics looked over my shoulder and said, "Oh, that's what the manual
looks like." They were trying to do headgasket and clutch replacement
without even having the manual. No wonder the guy didn't know what he
was doing and quit! This was a VW dealership folks. Can you imagine
the scenerio at Billy Bob's Car Care?
So to "Click and Clack" the VW van is an enemy to be hated and reviled
because of their race against time. To us, owners and mechanics
familiar with the ins and outs of the vans, they are one of the best
vehicles ever made. I just spent 12 hours in a new Subaru Forester (one
of C&C's most recommended and favorite vehicles). It had nice power, it
stuck to the road like glue, got 25 mpg (gross!), had terrible seats,
and had no leg room! I couldn't bear to have to drive this car every
day. I got home and went for a drive in my Vanagon (Ahhhh!).
Hope this helps you see where folks are coming from when they despise
the vans. It is a fear of the unknown and the time element. Nothing
personal :-)
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Doug in CA wrote:
>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
>>
>>
>
>
>
| 
