[Vwdiesel] Driving old cars (Am I the only one?) (fwd)

[Val Christian]

Having had a VW diesel die in a seedy section of town, there are 
a couple of things which help:

1.) Ham radio  (BIG BIG HELP)
2.) barring that, a cell phone

Using the freebie information with a cellphone, I found a tow operator 
who would tow me out of the bad part to town to a motel, where I got 
a low cost room, and they didn't mind if I discretely wrenched in their 
back parking lot.

My 40 year experience is that newer cars are about as likely to fail as 
older cars, assuming they all get a base level of maintenance.

However, my A2 needs an afterburner to keep up with expressway speeds 
in Toronto (grin).







Forwarded message:
> 
> Yes, it's a conundrum. My daily driver is a 22 year old Jetta A2, and I
> would rather drive that, or even set out on a transcontinental trip,
> knowing, all things being equal, of arriving without incident, than set out
> in my A3, or mother's buick.
> 
> The biggest concern would be breaking down in a seedy area of a city, with
> the parts buzzards sitting on the fences.
> 
> As for reliability, in nearly a million miles of dieseling, the only thing I
> would do, for concentrated urban driving, would be to replace ALL of the
> brake lines (steel and rubber) about every 5 years.
...
> 
> Sandy
>