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Date:         Sat, 8 Jul 2006 10:32:41 -0700
Reply-To:     Steven Johnson <sjohnso2000@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steven Johnson <sjohnso2000@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Just how far in over my head am I? (long)
Comments: To: John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <6da579340607080844v5a2f1f0cic635d606e50e60dd@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Every car is a rat-hole when you think about it. I don't care which one you buy. It will suck at your bank account faster than anything else you buy. Notice, I said buy. Babies are free to make but they'll cost you more than any car. But that's your decision, not mine.

Anyway... So if you get any used vehicle or new, you're going to have to know the amount of money you can spend on it. Most of the car buying population knows this and that's why we aren't all driving Porsche's, Ferrari's or Lamborghini's etc.

There are many vehicles out there that are fairly reliable for a certain amount of time and then after that certain amount of time/miles has passed they start to degrade and demand attention. Note: atten- tion = Dollars.

So no matter what you have, if it is used and past that "certain age", it's going to need attention/ dollars.

The vanagon is no exception. As a matter of fact, it excels at this. So if you want to keep one, you need to be vigilant in giving it the attention it needs.

How much attention it needs depends on how many miles it has, how well it's been taken care of and how hard it has been driven. Your bank account will suffer accordingly.

If there a many miles on the drive train, then plan on setting aside some serious bucks for a replacement engine/transmission. I'm talking about 100,000 miles plus.

There are a multitude of other things that can wear out on this beast e.g. the coolant hoses, water pump, fuel lines and on and on. All these things have to be considered with the age of the vehicle.

But it isn't just the vanagon that suffers with age and I wouldn't rate it any less than any other vehicle as far as reliability. Or at least not by much.

You just have to decide if your going to drive just a car or are you going to drive a really cool VW. :)

--- John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> > So what's the bottom line - will I ever be able to > > truly relax and have miles of trouble and worry > free > > driving, or is something always gong to need > fixing? > > > > Well...I'd say what happens eventually is you get to > a point where it's a > little of both. In the beginning, pretty much > everyone gets a little > panicked by all the money they end up throwing down > the rathole just to turn

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