Hmmmm.  The ONLY reason I have a VW camper is for camping.  I use it for 
nothing else.  I drive small cars otherwise, that get excellent gas 
mileage, and that require about as much expense for maintenance and 
repair over a lifetime of 200K or more miles as the VW does in a year or 
so.  I do drive the camper on the road, but that is to camp with it, and 
certainly NOT for the experience of driving the damned thing (Gosh, 
what's going to happen this time?  Will it be a cooling problem, a 
running issue, will the transmission act up, some linkage lose it's 
connections, or will the indicators misbehave, giving me false readings 
concerning vital matters -- what?).  But for camping, especially so far 
as my wife is concerned, it's the greatest.  Just an expensive (and 
troublesome) way to go.  Towing something?  Well, you have to have 
something to tow it with, then.  And that is an expense, too.  My 
alternative to the VW is a tent, and I'm comfortable with that -- still 
use it sometimes, and leave the VW at home.

Dave Mc

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 5:17 PM, Richard Duvernay wrote:

> But a vanagon is much more than a camper,  and if getting my monies 
> worth for campingwas the only objective,  I'd find a camper to tow at 
> much less expense.   How do you place a value on 
> the "premium" associated with the vanagon road trip experience?  
>
> Rick
> 90 Westy
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Stephen Grisanti To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 2:43:10 PM
> Subject: Re: Your GoWesty Engine...how do you like it?
>
> "...they camp rain or shine so they can get their money's worth out of 
> it...."
>  
> This applies to any van purchase, if you think about it.  Our first 
> night of camping cost us about $5000.  The very next night brought it 
> down to $2500 per night, etc.  We stopped counting when it got below 
> $300/night.
>  
> Stephen
>
> --- On Tue, 10/13/09, W Monk  wrote: