At 10:44 PM 10/17/2012, Marc Perdue wrote:
>4) I can buy a 2000 BMW 528it (wagon) for about $7K and fix up my van.

Why not a Corolla?  Why keep two high-maintenance vehicles?  I live
in a different world than you do (obviously) but my '95 Geo Prizm
cost $1800 around seven years ago.  Total repair costs in that time
have been under $500 except for making the a/c work after we got it
which was something like $500.  It's now got rocker panel rust that I
patched up using a length of aluminum house-gutter stock, pop riveted
and caulked, for the cost of the tube of caulk, and a hole in a rear
fender well that some glass-and-epoxy took care of.  It's not
stylish, but it's like the Energizer Bunny(TM).  For the same money
as the BMW you could get a very nice Corolla/Camry that should stay
out of your pocket for a long time.

>Dennis, when everyone else refers to the Haynes manual, they mean something
>different. To me, the Haynes manual is everything you've written here.

Yup.  Agree.

>  I
>think you and David Beierl know more about car electronics than the people
>that design them.

Bwahahaha...sorry, caught me off guard.  Dennis may, but I surely
don't.  I'm just not in magical awe of electrons (which, frankly,
seems to be the ground state of most of the universe including this
list), and I can read a schematic reasonably well.  But if VW had
hired me to *draw* those schematics...well, I'd be quite proud to
have done as well as the ones in Bentley.  And *without* Bentley you
wouldn't think I was so great.

Putting Dennis and me in the same class is wrong.  Dennis has massive
hands-on experience with our vans and many other vehicles.  I've been
married to two of them, and I read fast and don't have a life.  Not
the same thing at all.

>  You guys are the best! I hope to meet you both some day.

Ditto...you and Dennis both.

Best,
David