I was at the dealership the other day in a quest for an über-rare Jetta EcoDiesel part and while at the counter I thought I would ask the guy about Vanagon CV boots. I heard tell on this list how the OEM boots were heavy and pliable like boots of yore, and not like the paper-thin six months or six miles version I get at my VW shop. I have practiced what I call my Vanagon poker face for years and years and by now I am good at it. I can be told that a steering v-box will set me back $900 or that a diesel spider hose will cost $450 without revealing the stabbing pain, like an apache warrior. But when I saw the figure $199.30 for a set of four boots, my weakness was palpable and the parts guy could sense that I was run to ground. I grasped the counter to steady myself and looked over the counter straight ahead at the new Lamborghini pulling up outside. There was a pause in my speech. The parts guy filled the awkward silence so as not to leave me totally humiliated: "that comes with new  bolts and zip ties."

New bolts and zip ties? Have they lost their minds, I thought? This is the kind of oh-just-have-the-whole-soda line of thinking that bankrupted the airline industry. 

I almost asked "how much better could they be to cost five times as much as I have been buying?" but I knew better. That would be giving him too much information. He would mentally use the fact that I have  been buying crap against me somehow. 

So I am asking you instead: can dealer boots be worth $200? Are they that much better?

Jim