Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:11:00 -0400
Reply-To: Chris S <szpejankowski@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Chris S <szpejankowski@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: "Do ya wanna trade?"
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTimUjqV4YPxtzsd4BzNQf0Y_X4K0eg@mail.gmail.com>
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I am amazed how people respond to our boxy contraptions today. Ten
years ago my angular beige barndoor, the '85 Wolfsburg Westy, didn't
get a wink, maybe a finger. My current '84 two-tone Teutonic
Hersheybar gets waved at by wide-eyed children nearly every time I
drive it.
Chris.
Wysłane z iPhone'a
Dnia Apr 10, 2011 o godz. 21:47 Robert Fisher
<garciasghostvw@GMAIL.COM> napisał(a):
> I pulled in at the grocery store next to a woman that was trying to
> shoehorn
> two kids and a buttload of groceries into what looked like an old
> Honda or
> the like. I don't have the middle seat in at present, and the
> boosters/car
> seat are on the back bench; she stood up and looked into the side
> window and
> said "Ohmigod, look at all that space...!" Then she said "That's one
> of
> those classic vans... do they cost much?" (She may have been
> confusing it
> with a loaf, actually.) One of the kids was diggin' it but I didn't
> pick out
> what she was saying because I was listening to the mom. I'm sure to
> her it
> looked like a rolling freight container right then... room for days
> plus
> kids' seats. : )
>
> I told her she could probably get one in decent shape for around
> four grand.
> That's the number that popped into my head for a passenger van, but
> I really
> haven't looked lately. I didn't go into the whole spiel of cost/
> difficulty
> of upkeep and so on, as I figured it highly unlikely she'd ever
> really get
> one, assuming she could find it. I did tell her I paid $300 for it
> but had
> to rebuild the engine and tranny in short order. (Even with that I
> don't
> think I have more than $1400 into the thing for getting it on the
> road and
> reliable-like.)
> I still think (and I know that this is preaching a well-worn sermon
> to the
> choir) that a modernized, mid-priced Vanagon layout would sell in
> bunches
> and droves. It might take some heavy PR to overcome the perceptions of
> front-end safety, but every body's afraid of something on a car. Too
> bad we
> won't see it.
>
> Like many of you I occasionally get ppl that walk up and ask about
> the van;
> the expression on their faces when they actually look through the
> windows is
> priceless. In the back of my mind I always think they're thinking
> "My god,
> it's full of stars!" hehe
> --
> Cya,
> Robert
>
> '87 & '86 Auto GLs
