Today was a terrible day for me and my Westy and will probably result in
my departure from the list.  I want to give my sincere thanks to all who
have taken the time to give me much good advice in the last few weeks.
Some of you may remember that my father gave me his pristine 84 Westy a
couple of weeks ago.  It was virtually flawless.  Tragically, it met its
end this evening.  After getting home from the MO-KAN VW club meeting, I
parked the van in the usual spot and went to my apartment.  I guess the
gear selector lever was a hair out of the P detent as it popped out of
park and rolled about 100 feet across my parking lot, struck a curb hard
which tore up the front end and proceeded to fly across some grass and
into the lake near my building.  It ended up in about 4-5 feet of muck
and water.  The tow guy did a great job but had to drag it over the
rocks on the lake shore to get it out, doing further but unavoidable
damage.  It is now sitting in my lot waiting for the insurance adjustor
tomorrow, front susp mangled, waterlogged with a torn up rear from
getting it out of the muck with a chain etc.  The damage probably will
exceed the value of the poor thing.  I have rarely ever seen a Westy in
as pristine condition as this, and to replace it I would think would be
at least 5-6K $...I looked up the NADA book value which is retail low
$2600 average $3800 flawless $4800.  I wonder which of these values they
will try to stick me with ha ha.  So, my 3 week ownership of my beloved
Van is over it seems and I am just sick about it.  It breaks my heart to
see it dripping in the parking lot.  So, thank you all again for being
so gracious to me on this list as a newbie and I wish you all far more
luck than I had in my short Westy-owner tenure.  I will have to do with
the two Jettas for now.

Matt Brickell
84 Westy ( Das Boot ) or aka ( U-1984 )
83 Jetta TD
86 Jetta D
Olathe, KS