Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 02:56:55 -0500
Reply-To: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: Vngns ARE junk! Wilder's Law
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
Well, I've had a great time at it. It works. It wouldn't work if I couldn't pay for some repairs, and it wouldn't work if I were on a tight schedule, but I've managed fine.
That being said, I had arranged to leave Matilda with Ken when I went to Cairo for a thorough preventive checkup even before my transmission seized up, in the hopes of having less breakdowns than last year. So the only difference was that AAA got Matilda to Millville instead of me doing it. And a lot more money, course - but the labor costs were the least of it, the transmission would have been expensive even if I could have put it in. Besides, I knew I'd have to replace my transmission sooner or later, and this was a fairly convenient way to do it.
Different approaches work for different people. So find the one that works for you.
Joy
p.s. FWIW, In a year and a half I haven't come close to spending what I paid for Matilda on repairs. And she's been my home for a year (no rent or mortgage payments) and I've put on 17K miles. Tax-deductible. So I think I'm doing okay.
****************************************************************
Joy Hecht
and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon
For musings about life and the vanadventures:
http://users.rcn.com/jhecht/gypsy
****************************************************************
:::-----Original Message-----
:::From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
:::Of Stan Wilder
:::Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 4:18 AM
:::To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
:::Subject: Re: Vngns ARE junk! Wilder's Law
:::
:::I think you got it exactly .................
:::Just do like Joy Hecht take off across the country with little or no
:::maintenance or knowledge of where the fuel filter is, where the brake
:::fluid
:::goes, how to remove the spare tire and just use Larry's list of good
:::repair
:::stations for VWs and Vanagons.
:::Now that's what I call adventure by an optimist.
:::
:::Stan Wilder
:::Engine Ceramics
:::214-352-4931
:::www.engineceramics.com
:::----- Original Message -----
:::From: "mark drillock" <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
:::To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
:::Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 7:31 PM
:::Subject: Re: Vngns ARE junk! Wilder's Law
:::
:::
:::> I have seen lots of Vanagons where the new owner spent very little in
:::> the first year of ownership. It is called buying right. If you buy a
:::> clean, well loved machine then there are less likely to be big things
:::> that have been ignored. It is simply human nature for many owners to
:::> start to neglect maintenance and repairs as they start thinking about
:::> selling. A thorough inspection is always called for. If there are a lot
:::> of little things that could be fixed easily and cheaply then you can
:::> figure that as a sign of neglect. I just love vehicle ads that say this
:::> or that little fault could be fixed for $50 or $100 so buy my $10,000
:::> car. If they are too cheap or too stupid to fix the minor things as
:::they
:::> come up what can you expect they did with the major things?
:::>
:::> As for Larry, he made what seems like a classic mistake to me. Some
:::> people figure that you can preemptively replace enough stuff as an
:::> insurance policy to ensure a more trouble free trip. Time and again
:::> this has proven to be a waste of time and money. Fix what is truly
:::> broken and save the rest of the money until you really need to spend
:::it.
:::>
:::> Mark
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