> "Honey, I think we should consider selling the Vanagon?"
>
> Pardon?   "Shelving" the vanagon?  No honey, it's got shelves in it
> already.   And besides, why would we want to work on the interior
> when the engine is dead....the engine...the engine is dead....it's
> dead.  Uh oh. That's not what you said, is it?  What did you say
> exactly?
>
> It could happen to you.  The fear.  Those words...echoing in your head.
>
> How do I convince my sig.other that spending $4k to $8k on a engine
> rebuild/fix/swap actually is a good idea.   This is, after all, a 20
> year old car with 150k miles on it.     I think she's still mad over
> the 24 hours spent broken down in the middle of nowhere on our last
> vacation.   She's also concerned about global warming.    And
> societal breakdown.    So I'm thinking maybe start with the TDI
> conversion running biodiesel (reliable and good for the environment)
> and then negotiate from there?   Maybe the idea that the vanagon
> could be up-armored a lot easier than a Camry, and we'd probably look
> silly driving a Camry with mohawks and crossbows?
>
> Help me out here!
>
> :-)
 I think the first thing you have to do is hide the actual expense-take the
$8k out of your petty cash rainy day account & tell her it only cost $2k?

Then when she discovers that you lied to her, tell her you had "bad
intelligence", & that it would be "totally irresponsible" to abandon the
vanagon now that you have invested so much time & effort!

Grin,

Tom-its the patriotic thing to do