Date:         Tue, 10 Dec 1996 11:43:18 -0700 (MST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         vanbondo@primenet.com (Rusty VanBondo)
Subject:      Insurance~RV rates (no go for my Westys)

Haggling with State Farm on insurance rates now that we are to the point
that we ought to cover our tuchas regarding the '67 Westy RFH. I was talking
to "Dick," the insurance agent's "associate."  She asked whether it was an
RV after hearing that the '67 was a "camper." VanBondo said "You Bet it is!"
He was then asked if it was self contained, had cabinetry?, extendable
fiberglass top?, ice box?, bed? yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! OK, great I'll call
the underwriter for you. You should save half of the rate that old "Dick"
quoted you! Cool!
<Not!>
It turns out that in order for State Farm to consider my vehicles as an RV
that it has to contain a bathroom. WHAT!? I told her that we had a toilet (I
lied thinking of runnin out ans getting a port-a-pooper. She reiterated that
it had to be a toilet/bathroom "like an airplane." So to insure a '67 Westy,
'83 Westy, and a '57 Single cab for an eight (8) mile commute for Rusty and
a three (3) mile commute for "Cherry," Limiting the RFH to 7500 miles per
year, with no medical coverage, no accidents, claims, or citations for five
years, including the home owners policy, full comp and collision, multicar
"discount," and no drivers under the age of 18 in the house hold, the
monthly will be $186.49 per **month!** PHEW!

The part of this that pisses me off is that we moved closer to downtown
Phoenix to reduce the commutes, do our part of reducing pollution, and get
closer to aging parents. Even though we reduced our 25 mile commutes (one
way, each person) to 8 and 3 miles we are in a "higher incident" ZIP code.
So we could live in the suburbs and bang up and down the freeways, as we did
for 16 years, and live in the formerly "country/rural" area where the
traffic is similar to Pasadena, California during the Rose Bowl and pay a
much lower rate! <nearly half> Eat me!
The truth is that traffic is much lighter downtown Phoenix, especially
during the weekends! (Pssst, dont tell anyone our secret). So, all of clowns
who travel way out to the far acres to escape "everyone" are actually
pounded with "everyone's" traffic. We pay our dues to *not* be in "the
country" ;-)  with everyone else.

The toilet goes in this weekend. So much for Vintage/Stock. We will install
the wings to be "like an airplane" next weekend. Now I know why the BFY logo
is designed as it is! ;-)
-VanBondo\

In the mean time insurance underwriters at State Farm ought to pull their
heads outta their butts...