Date:         Thu, 26 May 1994 07:58:44 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Gerald Skerbitz <gsker@lenti>
Subject:      Re: *MY* 82 Diesel!

On Thu, 26 May 1994, Jonathan Dove - VAX Master wrote:
> From: macklow@sybase.com (Jim Macklow)
> >>   Question: Should the air which comes out of the rear-passenger ceiling
> >>             vents be warm? I had tons of airflow of cold air, no matter what
> >>             I tried I couldn't get rear heat. The front heat was fine though.
> >
> >The ceiling vents only deliver fresh air, which could be warm or cold 
> >depending on the outside temp. :-)  One thing I like about the four-lever
> >system is its simplicity... top lever for air delivery to the windshield,
[trimmed]
> >Kudos to the VW engineers!
> 
> I believe the VW engineers did a good job designing the four lever system.
> You can't make it any simpler.  I have no trouble with it but my parents 

I'm rolling on the floor laughing while reading this.  You have four levers
not separated at all so you can't tell which on you are moving. The three
that control WHERE the air goes are separated by one that controls the temp
of the air (one increases air flow to its opening when shifted to the right,
and the other decreases air flow to its opening when shifted to the right). 
The one at the BOTTOM is fresh air and looks and feels just like the ones
that are hot air.  The fresh air to the back is controlled like the heat, and
the fresh air to the front is controlled by the vent it comes out of, and the
Air Conditioning system is a totally separate system of its own with its own
peculiarities. You call this simple??  WOW.  You actually can NOT operate 
this system without either the manual or about an hour of playing with it 
to figure out what it does.  The only thing simple about the system is 
that it was probably pretty easy to implement because it makes you do all 
the thinking.

Simple is 
   a temperature control which is obviously a temperature control 
      -- not mixed in with the air flow control.
   an air flow system where if you move any of the levers to the right 
      the air flow increases, and if you move any of the levers to the 
      left the air flow decreases.
   a fresh air system which controls fresh air to the front and back from 
      the same point. OR the ability to control fresh OR HOT air to the 
      back FROM the back since those are the people who care.

Truly simple would be
   a temperature setting -- in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius (a la Mercedes).


Yikes!!!!  :-)
I guess we all have our opinions on the way things should operate, eh?
 --
Gerry
Gerald Skerbitz <gsker@lenti.med.umn.edu> U of MN Med.School.Admin 6-5379