Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 21:48:52 -0800
Reply-To: Björn <bratjen@DIRECT.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Björn <bratjen@DIRECT.CA>
Subject: my anecdotes form Germany (long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Anecdotal Observations from Germany
Official VW part prices are outrageous, Syncro part prices are ridiculous
and 16" Syncro prices are like Michael Meier put it "Phantom prices". He
quoted as a reliable reference a friend who worked on airplanes for NATO.
Who would pay DM 1100 for one Vanagon Syncro 16" Trailing Arm?
German bureaucracy sucks and has not changed much. Example: For the bus
ticket for my daughter’s bus to school (a public transport bus) I had to
obtain a form from a store in town, fill out the form, present it at the
school to get a stamp, go back to another place in town to get the passport
for the tickets, back to the the school to get another form approved that
the actual tickets were reimbursed.
Hello, someone wake up and get all the forms to the school!
Something difficult to believe for people in North America, but true: You
can get locks for your garbage cans to prevent other people from putting
their trash in your container.
Garbage is highly regulated in Germany. People have to do a lot of
separation: glasses, plastics, different paper products, compost, etc.
Garbage is paid by how many people you have in your household. You get a
certain weight allowance. When you put your garbage container on the curb
for pickup very early next morning, there could be someone sneaking in their
garbage into your container....
Maybe VW has an optional lock for the ash tray?
Some prices in Germany are absolutely ridiculous. My brother wanted a new
front door installed in his house. The first estimate was DM 20000. He
finally got it for DM 10000. I think I would not want to pay much more than
$1500 in Canada for the same job.
More than two thirds of all wages go towards social cost and taxes. It costs
you from about DM 400 to more than DM 1000 a month (from single to family)
for health insurance alone. If you are employed the employer will pay half
(and pass it on to customers) and if you are self employed you are on your own.
The beers are good. I think I will have problems drinking a canned North
American beer.
Gasoline prices: Regular about DM 1.50, Super (premium, which many cars
use) about DM 1.60 and Diesel (which many cars use) about DM 1.05. On
Autobahns add DM .08 per litre.
There are many creative small cars which you will never see in North
America. I rented a new egg shaped thing called Ford Focus for a couple of
days. VW has the Polo and the Lupo (2.9L/100km with 3cyl TDI engine) which
are smaller than the Golf. The new Beetle does not seem to sell all that
well among the variety of small car entries by Renault, Fiat, Opel, Ford,
Mercedes, etc.
In a comparison of minivans on the European market the VW Sharan gets the
blessing of the German Automobile Club in its evaluation of 188 vehicles and
most buyers in this class. Comparatively they describe the Ford Windstar as
"contains the ghost of old American junkers", "a new record for lack of
visibility in its class", "sways like a vessel on water", he, he...
Police hospitality: A small car with Polish licence plates turned into a
side street and waited for pedestrians to cross. The next car was a police
car with two young guys in uniform. The driver of the police car immediately
picked up the PA and shouted into the microphone "weiter" ("move").
I don’t mind being driven (or driving) at 180km/h. However, when the driver
has only one hand on the steering wheel and emphasizes points by looking at
me and turning the steering wheel at the same time I tend to get nervous.
I felt anger when I saw a car driving at 140km/h while a young girl (maybe
six years old) was kneeling on the rear seat looking out of the rear window
without seat belts.
Something is not right when the length of traffic reports matches the news.
Stau (traffic jam) of 4 kms, 20 kms, 50 kms! I appreciated the trains,
subways, Strassenbahnen (streetcars).
I fixed my brother’s tapedeck in his Passat. (The VW shop wanted DM 1000 to
replace it.) It had partially digested a bunch of tape. For cleaning the
heads we only had Kirschwasser (cherry Schnaps). While we were in the car
with the bottle on the sidewalk some passers by offered to help. What a way
to start a party....
VW T3s (Vanagons) are sought after cars and get good resale value. This is
unfortunately true for parts as well, which means that they are expensive.
People in Germany are much more energy conscious than in North America. We
had a conversation about driving lights which my partner in the discussion
discounted as a waste of energy. When I left the computer on for too long it
was also judged as a waste of energy. I agree with conserving energy so I
did not deepen these discussions.
My daughter was surprized when people during Karneval were all dressed up
(including her dad) and were drinking and singing in streetcars and subways
and on the streets.
My daughter noticed differences attitudes towards the human body. There is
nothing to hide: There was an advertising poster on big billboards showing a
naked man and woman with the caption: "I have nothing to wear for spring."
She also was shown a movie in school about sex (grade 9/10). Her comment: it
was very graphic, you would not see this in North America.
There are some really nice people driving Vanagons out there. I met some of
them by phone or in person.
Björn Ratjen, Ph.D.
Mill Bay, B.C.
Canada
ph/fax (250) 743-7575
