Date:         Tue, 11 Jun 1996 09:59:39 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Rodney L. Boleyn" <boleyn@scr.siemens.com>
Subject:      Re: Cost of Hobbies


On Wed, 5 Jun 1996 12:10:33 -0400 (EDT), Dirk Wright <wright@uspto.gov> wrote:
>On Wed, 5 Jun 1996, Ron Van Ness wrote:
>> 
>> Yep, I think especially when it becomes a hobby/infatuation/life blood it
>> can get a little expensive even for the non-vanagon folks.  You start to
>> consider parts you "should" replace or modify that most "normal" drivers
>> wouldn't give a rodent's posterior about.  Of course you can drive it with
>> the rust/dents, but you know they're there and doesn't it gnaw at you?! 
>
>I bought my 914 (type IV engine) for 3,000$ last fall. I've spent over 
>2,000$ so far on parts, special tools, books, labor, etc. I couldn't sell 
>it for 5,000$, but I'm keeping track of my 914-related expenditures to 
>keep this project from getting out of hand. O yeah, we'd like to own a 
>mid '70's Westy some day.

Sorry this is so late--I'm about a week behind reading V@L...

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but my feeling on car restoration
as a hobby is that you have to depreciate the value of your repairs
the same way you depreciate a new car.  Every car has some base value
(Bill Kennedy lamented about creating a $7500 Vanagon that would only
fetch $3500), but if he actually put $7500 into it, he could probably
drive it a couple years and *still* get $3500 for it.

Let's compare that to the payments made on even an inexpensive new car
over those couple years, which costs (for argument's sake) $300/mo.
You would be spending $3600/year on the new car, and it would probably
be losing value at around the same rate, too, for the first couple
years.  So, after restoring a van for $7500 and driving it the first
year, you would have taken $3600 back out of it, making your
investment in it only $3900, and the year after, your investment is
only $300.  If you resell it for $3500 at that point (or even $3000,
or only $2500), then you've made out well by my estimation.

Include the cost of repairs over those two years, and the fact that
old cars don't depreciate as fast as new cars, and after two years
you're probably closer to the break even point than indicated above.
That is, after two years, you'd probably still have $2500 tied up in
the van.  But at that point you could sell it and feel like you're
breaking even, not losing $5000 on your $7500 investment.

Somebody, please punch holes in this bald attempt at rationalization!!!

-Rodney