Date:         Sun, 7 Mar 1999 22:11:40 -0400
Reply-To:     José Rafael Moscoso <jmoscoso@CARIBE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         José Rafael Moscoso <jmoscoso@CARIBE.NET>
Subject:      Re: Bulley manifesto against SUVs/marketing, Few Vanagon words
Comments: To: "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I must agree to all contents of your manifesto.  But may I include a
personal opinion and experience?

I hope so... here it goes.

In Puerto Rico (remember, a 100 by 35 miles island with more roads than
greens) a recent survey indicated that 90%  of the new SUV buyers did so
because of personal security (I didn't see this reason in your manifesto),
they do not want to get hurt in an accident but they don't care what happens
to the "other part".

The other thing is, the new generation buying and inheriting this SUV are
looking for places to try out their vehicles (in a way just like the ads)
and are destroying the beaches, sand dunes and vegetation.  My wife and I
used to go to a beach in the southwestern part of the island, ten years our
Westfalia allowed us to barely cross around the salt ponds to the most
beautiful beach we had ever seen.  It took us something like two hours to
get to the beach front because of the loose sand and a couple of ditches the
van used to play in.  For some three years this was our paradise and the
only thing we ever left there was used water flowing from the sink and other
natural discards plus bio-degradable materials.

Less than four years ago a summer festival was held nearby and "everyone"
came in with their SUV and waterbikes, since them can go in there in any
jalopy, you have a dozen different pathways to select from, even one
directly in the high tide mark, and to find a tree or shade to park near by
you have to look around twice, and do your own trash raking.  The
unconsciousness of a few and the follow up actions of the rest have destroy
what used to be a peaceful and natural reserve.

Thank you for the bandwidth and patience...