I remember a bumper sticker from good old Germany: Alt aber bezahlt! [old
but all paid for].

 Joachim Preiss
 Acton, MA
 [mailto:spielmobil@earthlink.net}
 '85 Westfalia 1.9WBX 'Spielmobil'

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
> Of John Rodgers
> Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2003 11:57
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Frugal to the nth
>
>
> Chuck Hill wrote:
>
> >Folks, sometimes I'm just amazed at how little some of us want to spend
> >on owning a set of wheels.  People ask about fixing the unfixable
> >instead of just biting the bullet and replacing it.
> >
>
> I see these types all the time as well. Run a vehicle to death, do no
> maintenance, and then complain about what a piece of junk they have when
> it stops and leaves them on the side of the road somewhere. Also, there
> is the type that gets the biggest, baddest machine they can, and they do
> the same thing. I've got a couple of kids that are kinda that way. Big
> bad machines, big bad payments. Pickup trucks over $30 grand apiece.
> That's $60 thou... They rag me all the time about my old Vanagon. Fact
> is my old 88 GL is paid for. If I'm out of work, nobody's coming to
> re-possess it. If they have a ripple in their employment, they start
> sweating.
>
> Let's see, here's a little equation for you. 2Trucks@$30K equals $60,000
> divided by $5000(Av. cost of Vanagon  and I'm being generous - Westy's
> not included) equals 12 - Vanagons that could be purchased for the price
> of those pickup trucks. So if I did not buy 12 vanagons, but bought 10
> instead, and set aside the cost of two vans -$10K - for a maintenance
> reserve, and drove a van for 2 years and then pushed it over a cliff, it
> would take me 20 years to use up my supply of vans.  Now I'm age 63 - so
> 10 Vanagons at 2 years each would make me 83 years old, at which time I
> might just keep the last one, and since I most likely wouldn't be
> driving that much anymore, put it up on blocks out in front of the house
> ( red-neck ancestral blood kicking in) and go out and sit in it once in
> a while for old times sake and fond memories of good trips past.
>
> As for my current van, I spare no expense on it. I despise being broken
> down somewhere or not being able to go when I want because some
> maintenance item was not taken care off. The key word is "Preventive"
> maintenance. Preventive maintenance includes replacing some parts
> "before" the end of their service life to avoid unscheduled shutdowns
> for repair/ maintenance. One does not run a set of tires until there is
> a blowout before replacing the tires. You cannot pull an airplane over
> and park it on a cloud because something broke as a result of bad
> maintenance, but the vans are not airplanes and things are not quite as
> critical on the vans, except for a few safety items, like brakes. But
> good maintenance will up the reliability of the vans significantly, and
> make life a lot more convenient. One thing, I never "cheap-ass" on my
> maintenance. Pardon me, but if my hydraulic pump goes out, I am not
> going to put a used pump on except as an emergency to get me to where I
> can put a new (properly overhauled or brand new) one on, because I don't
> want to be bothered with likely having to go through it all again. And
> possibly out in some really inconvenient place - like maybe on the
> Alaska Highway 100 miles from anywhere in any direction.
>
> Ok, I will get off my maintenance soapbox.
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
>