I've never heard of a shortage of it, but I can confirm that the local VW
dealer here in Portland Maine gets $14-plus per gallon, and I certainly
think that that's ridiculously expensive. I mean, it's for a cooling system
that takes 9 quarts of it at 50/50 and leaks like a sieve from the so-called
"head gaskets" and from a mile or so of hoses. If you go by the book and use
fresh every time you drain the system to replace a "gasket" or a hose or
heater core, that's more than 30 bucks a pop.

Of course, at one-tenth the cost of a replacement for a corroded cylinder
head, we frugal owners may consider ourselves lucky. If only I were a little
more daring, I'd use any of a number of coolants that claim to be
phosphate-free for about a third of the price of Autobahn.

If anyone really wanted this, Bentley names the coolant as ZVW237 102.

More to the point for me though, is whether I can buy this stuff in
sufficient bulk to qualify for some kind of discount to see me through while
I track down the leaks from said sieve and replace said so-called "head
gaskets."

Ed Carroll

----- Original Message -----
From: Ben McCafferty <ben@kbmc.net>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: Air in expansion tank, Overflow overflowing

> Everyone keeps complaining about the price of this stuff...for the record,
> it's Autobahn brand, available at the dealer, and is blue in color.  I pay
> US $14.80 per GALLON for it, so maybe I should go into business reselling
it
> since I seem to be the only one who can get it cheap?  Hmmmm.....
>
> Not sure about the liter bottles, tho...
>
> bmc  :)
> "Faith will move mountains, but you'd better bring a shovel...."
>