Date:         Wed, 2 Oct 1996 11:46:07 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         wabbott@mtest.teradyne.com (William Abbott)
Subject:      Re: Westy safety, click and clack

	The Marritzi (?) brothers may have once been a couple of
MIT guys but they aren't as young as that description would suggest-
they've been around, arround cars at least, for a while. ;)
	As auto mechanics, they have to take a pretty non-denominational
view of cars- VWs (and other German/European) makes rank slightly below
average to them since they require regular maintenance. Japanese
trade goods which require not much for 100K and a little after than
and then reach the end of their economic life are good deals to Tom 
and Ray and a lot of their listeners. Ford and GM are selling cars now
with 80,000-100,000 mile service intervals, other than oil changes. 
I wouldn't pay much, if anything, for such a feature, but its obviously
attractive to the general public in the USA.
	My friend who warms up his 250,000 mile Honda every time
he drives it has spent pennies for maintenance. Our family's similar 
vintage Golf (II) looked better after 3 years (and certainly for the next 5 
until I traded it in on the Corrado ) but required a CV, front struts, 
radiator hoses, heater core (and subsequent recall) and motor mounts 
after only 137,000 miles. Both of us enjoyed our cars, and wouldn't
have enjoyed the other's car as much. 
	In matters of taste, there is no arguing.

	Bill