When do you decide to get rid of your VW?

Until some vehicle safety inspection item is broken on the VW, and I can't find or fabricate the part myself.

88 VW Fox Wagon (made in Brazil) Yesterday, I hauled 8 cinder blocks, 2 half cinder blocks, 9 8X16X2 pavers, one bag of concrete, 4 8' 2X4s to the house. Making a skirt one section at at time on the house. Try hauling that in any VW made recently. Try that in any vehicle made recently and check the gas mileage at the same time. Weigh the maintenance costs of an old VW against car payments on a new vehicle. Consider doing some VW maintenance and repairs yourself. Not hard to work on once you've figured it out. A Bentley manual helps alot, but not 100% descriptive in some repairs.

My 1987 Jetta cost $250.00 in 2004. Broken odometer showed 325,000 miles then. Still does. It runs on Mobil1 or Castrol Syntech, on sale. 30 miles to the gallon hwy. Pound of freon yearly. 13 inch tires 25 bucks a pop. shocks

20 a stick, cvj boots 7 bucks. Maaco paint and new windshield 400.00. 4 VW wheel covers 20 dollars. Engine belts 25.00, radiator hose 7 dollars, antifreeze 5 dollars. same clutch still ok.Rad fan 70.00 dollars. At these prices, my 1988 Scirocco 16V and my 1987 5000 CS Quattro are not getting many miles on. Cheap transportation and keep your $ in your pocket, don't lose it to BigOil. I forgot, car insurance 45.00 a month. In Florida. Leave windows open, nobody wants to steal it. It's a keeper!

"Johny" wrote..Yesterday, I hauled 8 cinder blocks, 2 half cinder blocks, 9

8X16X2 pavers, one bag of concrete, 4 8' 2X4s to the house. Making a skirt one section at at time on the house. Try hauling that in any VW made recently. Try that in any vehicle made recently and check the gas mileage at the same time.

And that's the main reason I cant give it up.. I too haul everything under the sun.. Last year, I had in my 86 golf all at once ,a new toilet, A 4 by

I will get rid my volkswagon when

1. a tune-up no longer makes it run anybetter

1. when it backfires or my way of saying it "farts"

1. when the old lady starts hasseling me again about "fixxin it for 1000th time
2. when its worth less than a case 24 Beer :lol

-- johnin

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

View this thread:

Send from

My last car, actually. This was about six years ago. An '84 Scirocco.

On the way back from London, ON, to Hamilton, the car started running off the battery. At night. In December. On the way back from my girlfriend's father's death.

It didn't run long.

So I get the tow back. Shoulda bought CAA. Cost of the tow alone was twice the membership. So I get it back, and the wiring harness to the alternator is all corroded to heck -- it's like dust inside the wires. So I bodged together a new harness, get the thing charged and jumped, and it runs just fine.

I drive to my parents' over Christmas. On the way back, in a snowstorm, on Boxing Day (which is a holiday here), oil sensor comes on. I pull over. Now, the sensor has been having problems for some time, because all the wiring under the hood is crapped up (see above). But you never, ever assume your oil light is lying.

It wasn't. Pop the hood, there's oil _everywhere_. I figure, that's it, she's toast.

I got back to Hamilton (boy, that's a crappy place to live), and called the car into the wrecker. They were willing to tow it in to get rid of it for $20. I swear, those people are geniuses -- you pay them to take your parts off your hands. But I don't have a place to work on this thing, so there's not much I can do.

Well, my father, who is a gearhead and hangs out at the wrecker, sees my car. He asks what's up? Finds out I've written it off. He had a look (well, it's daytime now, innit?) and decided it was the gasket between the oil cooler and the engine: an o-ring. He was right.

He drove the car another 4 or 5 years. I sort of miss it, but not enough to buy another car.

We have owned 6-8 different Rabbits or Jettas over the last 20 years.

My wife had a 1981 Jetta we got rid of because it had never ending electrical problems. We put up with it for more than 8 years, but she got tired of being stranded on the side of the road, and I got tired of making "rescue" runs. :)

Before that she had a 1976 Rabbit we called "Frankenstein" because we had pieced it together from junkyard parts. It was a real clunker, but it drove well. We got rid of it when the engine mount brackets cracked off the car body.

Otherwise, we have kept every VW we have owned until they were damaged in a car wreck. Somehow it just seems easier and cheaper to pay $30-$300 on a repair than dealing with licensing, inspections, insurance, etc. Not to mention the time it takes to go FIND a car we like.

I'm currently driving a 1976 Rabbit that I picked up 15 years ago. I keep telling myself I should replace it with something newer, but I just keep fixing it. It's really rather reliable, still starts and drives nicely, and is just a "fun" little car. I paid about $2000 for the car, have probably spent thousands over the years doing various repairs, and it's probably worth less than $300 today. :) But, as long as the car is driveable and I can still get parts for it, I'll probably keep fixing it up.

Anthony