At 10:33 PM 11/6/00 -0600, 2000 wrote:

>Here I sit. 160,000+ miles, a little rust and a dent here and there  -
>and wounded Vanagon with plastic over the window. Is it time to "let it
>go" (my fourth bus/vanangon)? What can I buy? Test drove a few things.
>Don't like anything. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.  Not even (god forbid)
>a sports car.

If you're trying to compare anything available today to a vanagon, forget it.
Once you're hooked, you're hooked.

>Can I live without driving my Vanagon everyday? Will I lose my identity?
>My soul? It just so damn fun to drive. I probably will not get my money
>out of it in the future. Maybe 15 more years from now? Maybe some. Does
>it matter? But I just can't give it up (I'm laying on my back on the
>couch now). Am I sick? God help me!

When the motor let loose on turd, I was forced to drive my Cherokee.  The 2
hardest things to get used to are not being high enough over the road, and
not having the other rare Vanagon drivers (like you) wave when passing.

>But then I thought to myself: "What else is there in life?" Really. You
>know what I mean?. What else is there? Kids are grown and almost gone. I
>mean hey: what else is there?

Not a damn thing!

Trust a fellow "Van-fanatic", you don't want to give up the van.  Fix it if
you must, even make it show quality, but don't store it.  I drive my VWs
from Montgomery to Lincolnshire,IL whenever they are running.  Life is just
a little bit sweeter when you can spend the commute home decompressing in a
cool car that you love.  My Jeep has power everything, A/C, killer stereo,
easy to run through a car wash design, tilt, cruise, and a good 4WD system,
but I still miss driving my no power anything, no A/C, whimpie stereo, only
wash by hand, huge steering wheeled, no cruise, 2WD Vanagon.  It defines me
as a non-conformist, ex-hippie, all around cool guy.  Plus, being a camper,
it always freaks-out the over-conformist types here at work.

Fix it, love it, drive it.

Chris Smith
Outer Chicagoland
'82 westy
'74 Thing