Date:         Fri, 1 Mar 1996 23:27:38 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         rickgo@halcyon.com (Rick Gordon)
Subject:      long EV letters

Well, it won't do you much good but Carter VW in Seattle claimed that they
took the factory training and now do their own service on the Winnebago
parts, due in large part to the problems with finding a decent Winnebago
shop that can deal with this van. (Although I don't know what's so hard
about it - I guess maybe because so much is crammed into a smaller space
than an RV would have.)

I don't think 'loaner car's are required, although many dealers do make
them available as an incentive. You normally do have to call in advance.

What alarms tell you to plugin when the battery is low? You know that the
LP Gas alarm remains a drain on the battery, although if you're driving it
every day
this shouldn't be a problem. Assuming the van is still under warranty, just
take it down to a center, conduct a specific gravity test on each cell with
them present. Conduct a voltage test on entire battery. Have them remove
the battery and do a load test (although since this isn't a cold-crank
battery this may not be relevant.) My point is, if the battery is defective
it is easy to test for, and easy to replace.

It sounds like, from your description of putting "a switch on???" that they
just provided you with a disconnect switch because you have a short
somewhere that's draining your battery down. They worked around the problem
because they don't know the camper stuff well enough to fix it.

Your saga of the middle seat I didn't quite follow. But $400 was the going
rate as I recall.

Where did you hear that they aren't going to market EVs in this country?
The Campers are still for sale, and last I heard VW was introducing the
next non-Camper version this Spring.

Also, where did you hear the 200,000 figure? Just curious, but that number
seems high. I'm sure they're not all campers!

regarding your original questions:
- I like the Eurovan. I haven't developed a 'love' for it (yet). I'm still
kind of fond of my old Vanagon too.
- I haven't had any trouble with the service. Well there was a bad camper
battery in it when I picked it up, and it took 2 return visits to get them
to swap it out, but other than that, no problem.

I didn't quite follow that large stream of letters, but it sounds like:
- VW dealer sent you to Winnebago service as per VW warranty;
- Winnebago fixed the problem and ripped the floor;
- Winnebago then (after you & VW dealer got after them) agreed to bring the
floor back to "stock condition".
- Winnebago contractor then failed to deliver on that agreement.
- Winnebago representative came out and inspected the job, and said it was
repaired to stock condition, but "avoided" you.
- Winnebago contractor says they did the repair to Winnebago spec.

Basically it sounds like you got a bum VW dealer and a bunch of flakes at
the Winnebago place as well. What evidence do you have that this Winnebago
rep
actually showed up? It sounds to me like they're pulling a fast one on you.
I don't blame them for not wanting to pull the cabinets out to replace the
linoleum - they're trying to make a living after all. But they did screw it
up in the first place and that is "stock condition."

Do you have any friends that are lawyers?

This one should be a lesson to all to test everything in a new car before
driving it off the lot and therefore taking delivery. And all this because
they didn't know how to remove the seat.

defender of EVs (for today)
-rick

Rick Gordon
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
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http://www.halcyon.com/rickgo/
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