I bet you would of heard the same rant 30 years ago from a split window bus driving 60 year old when asked about the new (too modern) Vanagon and the current generation of lazy kids and their TV's.

Jason
Toronto

On 2013-07-11, at 8:14 PM, Scott Ohana <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM> wrote:

> I do think there is a large shift away from the traditional VW ( or
> first car of any type )owner of yore that just tinkered with stuff,
> figured out how it works....came up with inexpensive repairs etc...
> a swing away from that.
> Even to the point of post-comuter generation people without a
> background in mechanically tinkering and general car savvy now owning
> vanagons.
> Which if ever there was a vehicle that could benefit from plane ol
> mechanical and car savvy by the owners ..
> Vanagons are sure that.
> And I know people that can't tell if the head lights are aimed very
> well, can't figure out the stock jack ..
> don't know that click-click-click real fast  for turn signals on one
> side means a bulb is not flashing on that side.
> And I would think that most of use that grew up tinkering figured that
> out in about the first 2 months of owning our first car.
> Sure doesn't take a lot of brain-power to figure that out..
> yet that is a too typical example of how very untuned in with car things
> many car-driving people are these days.
> 
> lots and lots of that.
> so that could be a factor in vanagons declining ...they are
> pre-computer, pre 'everything made cheaply out of plastic' vehicles.
> The modern world may have trouble relating to a thing from yesterday's
> pre-computer world.
> And computers and iphones most definitely, in my opion and perception..
> consipire towards people thinking less for themselves. LOTS less .
> 
> so that's what could do in  vanagons ..... IMO ..is the lack of plain
> fix-it savvy in the culture. ..the ever increasing decline in
> figure-stuff-out-myself ..It's too easy for people to rush to the
> iphone, then ask a question without enough info with it  to be answered
> intelligently.
> .......than it is either to just plane LOOK at the thing and see how it
> works ..or to ask a question with enough info for the question to be
> answered .
> 
> there is a creeping stupidification going on ..in the entire culture.
> That's what could do vanagons in.  Nothing about the vehicles
> themselves, or even about parts for them.
>  by 2030 most people won't be steering their own cars.
> They have already identified......that as soon as self-driving cars come
> along ( already with some of those abilities coming out in 2014 ) that
> driving skills will be lost..
> or I should say ......further lost.
>    The creeping studpidification of culture....started with the
> popular adaptation of the computer..and iphones boosted  it to a whole
> new lever of lack of courtesy, respect, or even enough useful info.
> That's what will do in vangons. It's already well started.
> It's silly too.
> If anyone figures out how someone could ask for a shippng quote without
> saying to where..
> let me know please. That only happens about 10 times a day these days.
>    Just beyond me how that could be so common. There is definitely
> something going on .. a self-harming auto-immune system breakdown thing
> in the culture, something like that.    Something that was always there,
> say since WWII .........basic sense........is going away.
> It could get vanagons too.
> 
> stay sane !
> 
> 
> On 7/11/2013 4:46 PM, Derek Drew wrote:
>> Every freaking one of us, just about, is 60 give or take a decade.
>> 
>> So, the Vanagon scene is going to die out *all at once* in about 20
>> years from now when we stop carrying ignition keys.
>> 
>> In fact, I predict that it will die out in exactly the year 2030 like
>> a rock falling out of a building.
>> 
>> This will be the end of the VW-van-boomers bouncing off what happened
>> in 1968 and the promise of a better less restricted life and being
>> imprinted with some meaning from the idea of VW vans with engines in
>> the back.
>> 
>> The people who were five years old in 1968 were not imprinted as
>> strongly with this.
>> 
>> There are parallels to what is going to happen with the end of the
>> baby boomers and the destruction of the social security system
>> economically.
>> 
>> In other words.... if you want to sell your Vanagon to get your money
>> back out of it, you should sell it in the next 10 years before our
>> group begins pealing off or losing their driver's licenses due to old
>> age because then there will be a flood on the market of vans being
>> sold by old timers and fewer people to replace those fanatics.
>> 
>> The only thing that can stop the flood is if the owners decide to
>> bequeath the vans to their sons or grandsons.  But many of these
>> people won't really have the patience, so don't expect them to have
>> the commitment that we did. Then *they* will sell their rigs onto the
>> market, or let them rust into oblivion.  You can't exactly say, "Oh,
>> its easy, just read the posts from Samba, Vanagon  List, and
>> Yahoo  vanagon groups and you will be all set with this vehicle. You
>> only have 1 million posts to  read and understand and you will be in
>> total control."
>> 
>> I myself will singlehandedly keep the scene going until 2040 because
>> I won't stop driving the vans until I crash *all* of mine due to old
>> age (or off-roading them too hard).
>> 
>> At 02:11 PM 7/11/2013, you wrote:
>>> Buncha young squirts out here Mark....60 myself in April
>>> 
>>> VWs since 1961, Buses since 1967, Vanagons since 1992 (An 80 POS and
>>> my two
>>> current 84s)
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Jim Thompson
>>> 84 GL 1.9 "Gloria"
>>> 84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
>>> 72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
>>> 75 914 1.8 "Nancy"
>>> Full Timing From March 1999 To January 2012
>>> oldvolkshome@gmail.com
>>> http://www.oldvolkshome.com
>>> Find me on Facebook:
>>> http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Thompson/100000710343835
>>> ***********************************
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 8:15 AM, Mark Dearing <VWBrain@aol.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> > I just turned 60  later  mark d
>>> >
>>> >
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Derek Drew
>> Washington DC / New York
>> derekdrew@derekmail.com
>> Email is best normally but...
>> PHONE: 202-966-7907 (Call the number at left normally)
>> (alt/cell for diligent calling only): 703-408-1532
>>