Date:         Thu, 9 Nov 1995 11:39:09 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         wabbott@megatest.com (William Abbott)
Subject:      Seat Belts, heater cores

	Seat belts were *options* for some period of time, so a new
car might or might not have them, a PO might install them later, etc.
My families 63 Plymouth Valiant had front belts, no rears, and our 68
Bus (Non-walk-through I think I remember...) had belts on all 9 seats. 
Yes, it must have been a 9 passenger, it had the fold-down seat
back on the middle seat by the door.

	Its true that seat belts, like air bags, can cause injury. There
was a lot of net.wisdom, prior to the net, yet, that seat belt injuries
were more dangerous than what happens when you don't wear 'em, that 
you'd be trapped in a burning vehicle, that it was safer to be tossed
out the window (!) etc. My late wife, a pretty rational person, would
not wear belts, claiming (no doubt accurately) that an aunt had gotten
various internal injuries. Her family's 62 Triumph Herald and 63 Dodge
Dart (her car when we met) both had belts on all seats, so go figure...

	There was a VW recall for Golf II / Jetta II heater cores- ours
failed, we paid for a replacement (long out of waranty) and the replacement
was in turn replaced in the recall. Can't remember if I got a refund
on the first replacement too, I think I did. There was a class-action
lawsuit based on the theory that a catastrophic failure could dump
230 degree coolant on your feet. All we had was an annoying leak- smelled
like curry, steamed up the window if you selected defrost and heat... drove
without a heater for a year and a half before fixing it. Ask your dealer,
I guess.

	Bill