Van

[Susan Kline]

Dear David and Warren,

Thanks for your experiences. It just reassured me that I've done the right
thing. I traded the extremely faithful but aging ('87, 163k) Toyota Tercel
5-door hatchback in on a newer ('93, 55k) Corolla wagon! (It is beautiful!)

I had been going to put a new engine in the Tercel, and drive it till it
dropped. I'm glad now I didn't. By the way, when I came back yesterday to
sign over the title, I watched while the salesman tried to drive Old
Faithful to a different part of the lot. It always started at a touch
(unless hot), had a quite new battery, and never had any electrical
problems EVER. After a night at the dealer's, emptied and abandoned, the
Tercel started, stalled in reverse (first time EVER), and then had a dead
battery. There's a message there somewhere, though I don't know what it is.

No more carburation difficulties, burning oil, or dieseling (at least, I
HOPE NOT!) ... more vim on hills ... more room for stuff ... I'm planning a
framework to allow the large board I use to transport actions to become a
permanent (but removable) fitting, covering everything with dark grey
indoor-outdoor carpeting to match the interior. Tempting tools can lurk
underneath. I'll phase out the (fragile, already warped) window-blind type
cargo cover, and build another of fiberboard covered with more carpet, to
hide the rear area. I'm planning cunning storage nooks, too, so things
won't sort of drift around.

I did depreciate the last two cars I've owned, but I have a different plan
for this one. I hope to look after it meticulously, and drive it a long,
long, long time. I think I'll get a far bigger tax advantage by not
depreciating it, and taking the standard allowance per mile. After 5 years
it would have been fully depreciated, and of no further tax use, while the
mileage allowance will just go up every year, indefinitely (and I put a lot
of miles on it.) This way, I won't have to document every little upkeep
expense, too.

Anyone else doing it this way? Any tax hints?

Susan

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
At 11:10 PM 5/30/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear David,
>
>I had a similar problem with my van, it was burning a lot of oil, and
>the plugs were fouling up and it was running rough.  So, I too decided
>to rebuild the engine and run it 4-5 more years. <SAD STORY>
>Then, all of a sudden, the house was paid off along with all our other
>loans and my wife said "You need to buy a new truck or IRS is going to
>eat us alive next year!"  So we went shopping like a pair of kids and
>brought home a Dodge pickup with the Cummings diesel and all of the
>goodies.
>
>When I was driving the van over to the used dealer for him to sell, it
>stopped dead in the middle of the street. <MORE SAD STORY>  I went to
>Mitsubishi and they quoted $1100 just for the part. 

>I'm going to think very carefully before I rebuild anymore engines and
>for sure I'll never do anything so foolish with a Japanese vehicle. 
<ME TOO!>

>My advice, is that unless it's totally impossible, when your vehicle
>becomes un-reliable, buy a new one with a 5 year, 150,000 mile extended
>warranty or at minimum 100,000 miles, depreciate it over the same period
>and do everything you can to pay it off before the warranty expires and
>then do it all over again!!!  
>
>That way you'll rarely have an un-reliable vehicle!
>
>Of course, if you are just starting in the business, lots of luck. 
>Maybe your rich uncle will conveniently die and drop something on you.
>:-)
>
>sincerely,
>
>Warren
>
-------------------------------------------------------------
>Vanderhoofven wrote:
>> 
>> Last year on the way home from the National PTG Convention in Orlando, our
>> van broke a rod in the engine whe we were only about 30 miles from our
>> house. <snip>

>> Take care of your car!  Regular maintenance is important, including oil
>> changes, tune-ups, constant checking of fluid levels, tire rotation, and
>> constant replacement of worn parts including belts and hoses.
>> 
>> May you have many years of driving with no problems!
>> David Vanderhoofven
>
>-- 

Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com		

"For some reason, as time passes, I'm expected to play the roles of
increasingly older people."
				-- Ashleigh Brilliant