[ARC5] OT Costs - and everything else and how did VW's end up here?

[jcoward5452 at aol.com]

John and All,
 My 1961 Bug is probably my most reliable automobile.I have junked Fords and Mazdas, a Korean thing and some others.The Bug always starts,the brakes work just fine,I am over 6' tall and have leg room,I can seat 5 persons whereas the "new bug", soon to be discontinued,has no room behind a driver of my height.The only electronics is the radio and a 12V to 6V regulator I built for it.It does now have a 12V alternator where it once had a 6V generator.The starter motor is still the 6V one and it spins quite well on12V and the windshield wiper motor has an added adjustable dropping resistor so I can set my desired speed.No rust and still has a straight body.Can lift the engine lid without hitting the bumper! No gas gauge! Flip over valve for reserve works just like the day it was made.Original Continental spare tire ( or is it Tyre?).Book says I should get 31.5 mpg at 1/2 load and 53 MPH and I get about 32 mpg at about 70 MPH highway plus 50 MPH hills.Not a daily driver as I am afraid of being run over by a monster truck but I do drive it often in and around Santa Cruz CA and I do get lots of kudos.Also have a '64 split window Type II and a '71 bay window Type II,both in various states of restoration with rebuilt 1600cc engines with counterweighted crankshafts and properly carburated with dual Delortto 36mm's.Ever see a bus burn rubber? Kind of funny actually.
 Jay






-----Original Message-----
From: J. Forster <jfor at quik.com>
To: Mike Morrow <kk5f at arrl.net>; Discussion of AN/ARC-5 military radio equipment. <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Fri, Feb 19, 2010 9:36 am
Subject: Re: [ARC5] OT Costs - and everything else


The Bug was well engineered and served me well for about 20 years. No
merican car of the era would have done 1/2 as well.
-John
============

 John wrote:

>I bought a new VW Bug in the mid 1960s about $1200
>You can't get ANY car for $4800 to $6000 today.

>From the BLS calculator, $1200 1965 dollars equals about $8200
 2009 dollars.  And given how primitive, inefficient, unsafe, and
 featureless cars of that era (especially the Bug) were compared
 to today, anyone making a similar vehicle today would be lucky
 to get $8200 for it, if were legal to market, which it wouldn't be.

 I bought an Opel Manta in the early 1970s, and as much as I'd love
 to still have it, when I inflation adjust the price I paid to the
 nearest thing available today, I'd be a fool to pay the inflation
 adjusted price for that Opel even if it were NOS (unless I could
 sell it to a collector for big bucks).

 I know of no significant error, from my experience in the last 40
 years, in the numbers produced at the BLS web site.  If anything,
 it seems to OVERestimate the effects of inflation a little during
 the past four decades.

 Mike / KK5F
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