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Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:02 pm
by glasseye
Quadratrückseite wrote: I was asking if you had factored in the cost of the vehicle to the costs less per mile than an air-cooled bus quote, that's all. That's like people who run out and buy a Prius because gas costs too much - it would take a long time to catch up to the savings if you already owned (no payments) a gas guzzler vs. a Prius + car payments, higher insurance, etc.
Fair enough. Then you have to include resale value, depreciation etc. It goes on and on.

Let's be clear. I DO NOT want a Sprinter with marble countertops and in-motion Internet. I'll probably wind up with an empty tin can cargo version that I can customize to suit my age-related and acknowledged preconceptions and prejudices.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:10 pm
by hambone
I'm not buyin it Glasseye. You're damn proud of that bus, and the hard work you put into reviving its life again. Your proud mug on yer avatar says it all.
Rabble rouser! :cherry:
Hey once you get a VW dialed in, other than routine maitenance they're remarkably reliable. I've thrown some crazy trips at my bus and it hasn't let me down yet.
P.S. real enlightenment is smiling at whatever life throws at you...adversity or struggle are all equal, only filtered by the perceiver.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:24 pm
by Elwood
Well ok then, color me informed :colors: "Sunny D" needs to be a trailer queen or is that king :king: Makes me want to sell Jake "as is" and use the money for a trip again in El before my summers get gone. Good food for thought, thanks glasseye for the explanation. And I guess driving a refridgerator is better than those toasters :bom: If I could afford the luxury -naa- I would go back up to the Yukon and stay, I felt really good there.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:11 pm
by glasseye
I'm not buyin it Glasseye. You're damn proud of that bus, and the hard work you put into reviving its life again. Your proud mug on yer avatar says it all.
Please. Note the two shit-eating grins in that avatar. Without satchmo's help, that bus might still rest on timbers, not Hankooks.

A second friend helped me pull the engine in the first place, something I was hesitating to tackle alone. So. Proud, yes. I learned a lot. Even better, I can share the pride with others, and that's a Volkswagen lesson I won't soon forget.



Hey once you get a VW dialed in, other than routine maitenance they're remarkably reliable. I've thrown some crazy trips at my bus and it hasn't let me down yet.
No argument. Colin is testament to that, too - and Elwood and zillions of others who have crossed several continents in buses. No argument that it can be totally reliable. And field repairable, maybe even by me. But it still fails several critical needs.

Security is one. I need secure storage for expensive tools.

Inconspicuousness is another. I need to disappear, not be waved at.

And serious all-weather capability. Bad weather makes good pictures, so that's your destination. Actually, you need to be on location just when the bad weather's getting better. At Steptoe Butte, the weather was horrible, but rapidly improving.

While the bus has undeniable charm and certainly photographs better than a Sprinter, it doesn't meet my current, narrow view of life. A half a week ago, however, in Oregon I was singing a different tune. :cyclopsani:


P.S. real enlightenment is smiling at whatever life throws at you...adversity or struggle are all equal, only filtered by the perceiver.
Now that sounds like good advice. I'll keep that in mind.
I'll work on my grins more especially next time I skin my knuckles with a crescent wrench. :bom:

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:30 pm
by hambone
Hey with any technology we're all dependent on one another to a certain extent. Colin will be paying me a visit in a few days.
Inclimate weather! We GIGGLE at snow and cold rain!
Image

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:39 pm
by spiffy
Either way I'll still be way glad to hang out with you. Come visit us in Walla Walla sometime, we'll get ya all wined up and talk ya back into a bus :geek:

What about a tear drop trailer behind a economical vehicle? Very low key, inexpensive, better on gas and the new ones are waaay comfy.

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:48 am
by Amskeptic
glasseye wrote: While the bus has undeniable charm and certainly photographs better than a Sprinter, it doesn't meet my current, narrow view of life.
I'll work on my grins more especially next time I skin my knuckles with a crescent wrench. :bom:

I am watching this thread sing the praises of the Sprinter + derivitives, and ask that those who are jonesing for a Sprinter to please go get one, life is too short not to.

Comparisons between the two vehicles are rife with perils. If Sprinter advocate wants to croon about "all-weather capability" he speaks only of inside comfort, and that is not "all-weather capability". I'll take any air-cooled VW up a hill in the snow any day over a Sprinter, and if I was stuck in Cheyenne in 20* below temperatures, I would take the VW because I know I would have a better chance of getting that low compression simple highly volatile gasoline engine to fire up and save my ass. I'd also take my chances to get a VW out of a rut in the boonies. I'd prefer the VW in the desert when the cooling fan relay decides to crap out on the Sprinter. I'd rather have the VW when the electrical system gets wonky over any Sprinter any day of the week. Reliability is not just the temporary fact that the Sprinter is allegedly less-prone to break down in its early life vs a thirty year-old + VW. The fact of the matter is, no Sprinter will be as reliable as an old VW at 400,000 miles +. When the electronics decide that your time is up, your time is up. With a VW, all you need is some ingenuity and you WILL keep moving.

That is some condescension to read of a VW as merely charming.
You go figure out what you your needs are, fine. The VW may not meet your needs. But as a transportation conveyance, a VW has been vetted and shown to be one of the toughest engineering exercises extant. I am here to tell you that MOST problems with a VW are due to your own oversight.
Colin
(as for grins when I skin my knuckles. . . I swear a little, bandage it with a little paper towel and tape then move on, meeting the challenge of adversity, yes, but keeping it real. I enjoy adversity and triumph, but the former I whine and complain about anyway)

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:57 pm
by LiveonJG
Peter,
I've been out of town the last few days and am just now trying to get caught back up. If you want a sprinter, get one. It won't change you nor will it change my opinion of you. No matter how you old you are, life is too damn short. Enjoy it the way you want to. You are more than welcome at any of our gatherings no matter what you are driving.

I'm looking forward to tipping a few with you again. :drunken:

-John

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:07 pm
by chitwnvw
Why compare. The Sprinter is pretty damn cool. I saw one at Van Buren State Park in Michigan this weekend and I was ogling it until the owner came out and said to 'beat it'. I don't think I could do a darn thing if it stopped running on the interstate. You'd be joining the grid. But if you must...

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:27 pm
by Amskeptic
chitwnvw wrote: Sprinter I was ogling until the owner came out and said to 'beat it'.
Oogle a VW and the owner will come out and chat with you.
so. . . . . HA!
Colin

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:33 pm
by LiveonJG
Amskeptic wrote:
chitwnvw wrote: Sprinter I was ogling until the owner came out and said to 'beat it'.
Oogle a VW and the owner will come out and chat with you.
so. . . . . HA!
Colin
The man's got a point.

-John

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:57 am
by chitwnvw
LiveonJG wrote:
Amskeptic wrote:
chitwnvw wrote: Sprinter I was ogling until the owner came out and said to 'beat it'.
Oogle a VW and the owner will come out and chat with you.
so. . . . . HA!
Colin
The man's got a point.

-John
The old VW will get girls talking to you. I don't think the Sprinter would do the same.

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:44 am
by hambone
The guy told you to beat it? What a jerk. Well who knows who pissed in his Wheaties.

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:48 am
by spiffy
hambone wrote:The guy told you to beat it? What a jerk. Well who knows who pissed in his Wheaties.
Speaking of, ya could have gone back and "marked" his tires :geek: