David Bohannan wrote:

snip..

> Is there a word, other than "mad" to describe this condition? I think
> "practical" fits the bill...
>
> Practical to a fault..we serve these little utilitarian vehicles because
> what they do for us that had not been invented in really any other
> vehicle...

snip

> What better to transport my family of 8 yet work on pretty much all on my
> own...self reliance is certainly a part of it as well...

Many of the doubts have to do with the age of many of these vehicles.
Once past ten lots can go wrong even when well maintained and some of
these haven't been.

I've been thinking lately, and especially in the past couple days with
the jump in gas prices, that simpler vehicles that can be maintained by
owners that get decent mileage is a % of the market not being built for
today.

Who's really mad? or practical?  The guy who buys into the marketing and
gets something new or the person who maintains something that works for
them?

I've been encouraged by mentions of things like the one in Make magazine
about an open source vehicle movement.

http://www.makezine.com/01/car/

I'm thinking it's time for those who are able to take old bodies...VW
and other, trick out diesels or build a hybrid based on specs we find on
the net or in other owner supported places.

I just don't have any faith in Detroit, Japan, Germany or other to go
back to making something safe, fun and economical in contemporary terms.
My Vanagon gets about 23/mpg which is good for its size and poor
aerodynamics but it got 23 or so back when it was built 25 years ago too.

(...and don't get me started on oil companies and distribution!  1/2 the
refining capacity we had 25 years ago because they don't want to clean
'em up...so the prices at the pump go higher!  ...a day after Katrina
news and the prices jump 2-3 times in one day when you know the fuel in
the ground is paid for and the margin is going to the station owner.)

You would think with CAFE things would have gotten better but we've only
gotten to the point that we're building Hummers and exempting them from
CAFE.

So I guess what I'm getting at is there is a much broader madness in the
land than that VW owners have for maintaining old hardware.

--

Wil

-- http://www.charmfx.com/

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm
not sure about the former."
--Albert Einstein