Thanks, Karl. I've been thinking about swapping out all of my brown
parts for black (and younger parts, even new parts like Ron's map
pockets).

On a side note, this is something that this list is really good for:
figuring out whether a problem is universal, or particular to one
area, climate, or color!

Mark

On Feb 3, 2011, at 5:44 AM, Karl Wolz wrote:

> I've been told that the brown plastic is much less durable than the
> black.
> Living in hot and dry (though not today) Phoenix, we tend to lose
> plastic
> parts early in their expected lives.
>
>
>
> I agree with Mark; most all of the parts he's mentioned have broken
> on my
> Westy ('85 with 450,000 miles).  Some of them get impacts on
> occasion, like
> knees to steering column covers and map pockets, while others just get
> normal usage, like door pulls and door latch inserts.  The
> plasticizers have
> simply broken down and they've become very brittle.  If you plan to
> keep
> driving your van for a much longer period of time, it would be a great
> investment to pick up all of the parts on Mark's list and store them
> away in
> a cool dark location.  Find black parts.
>
>
>
> Karl Wolz
>
>