If cars were made like RVs, we would all be taking the train to work!
Yes, I am still alive, but busy with travel and such. Prior to our Spain trip, we went to Ocala, Florida to an RV show to check out van campers. We were appalled by what we saw. One camper had an open-able "pop-out" window located behind the sliding door. If you slid open the heavy steel sliding door, it would instantly demolish the open window into a shower of glass fragments. Poor design!
I asked the salesman about this, and he replied, "There is a sticker next to the window reminding you to close the window before opening the door." Of course, elderly owners and their spasmodic grandchildren would never forget this simple precaution - right?
Think about it - would you buy a car or SUV or minivan where if you "forgot" to close the window in the back door, it would be instantly demolished when you open a front door? Of course, not. There would be a huge hue and cry, demands for a recall, and lawsuits galore. But in the RV world, a sticker saying "do not press!" located next to the "self destruct" button is deemed an adequate precaution.
There are other, less perilous examples. The van we rented in Spain had a high-tech "Truma" hot water and furnace system that ran on bottle gas. The vent for the furnace was beneath one of the open-able windows. Next to the window was a sticker advising you to close the window before running the furnace, lest carbon monoxide fill the coach and kill everyone inside.
Our European friends, not being complete blithering idiots like their American cousins, also installed an interlock switch so that if the window was opened, it killed power to the furnace. Sadly, if this switch was tripped, a convoluted reset procedure was required. What puzzled me was why they didn't merely relocate the furnace to another location in the van where there were no windows. There was, after all, a huge compartment in the back.
Our "new" (10-year-old) Mercedes/ERA/Winnebago "touring coach" has some similar foobars. Winnebago spent a ton of money painting the black bumpers and rub strips (and wheel arches) to match the silver paint job - and spend even more installing decorative stainless trim. They installed chrome-plated aluminum rims, but the chrome plating all wore off. Nice looking, but for my dollar, I would rather they spent it on better construction and layout. And this is a good quality coach, too.
With only 18,000 miles on the clock now, the "Mercedes" part seems to be working well, although I swore I would never own an old German car again. German cars, like any car, depreciate over time, and as they age, repairs become more often and more expensive. Parts cost more and finding talent who won't make things worse is always problematic. There is a "sweet spot" of ownership, where a substantial part of depreciation has already taken place, but before the car depreciates down to nothing, as they tend to do around the 20-year mark. You can't give away an old 7-series BMW with six digits on the odometer and a host of broken toys, a check engine light and the accompanying litany of OBD-II P-codes. Only a dedicated BMW mechanic or nut would buy such a thing.
And I swore I would never be that nut! (again!)
But the old gal gets 17-19 mpg and seems to run like a tank - so far. But some RV conversion issues crop up. For example. the Winnebago people installed swivel bases on the front seats, so you can turn those seats facing backward and form a conversation pit (not while driving! - again, a sticker!). Problem is, modern airbag SRS-equipped cars have seat switches to determine whether you put on your seat belt, whether you are in your seat, and some even have small explosive devices to cinch your seat belt tight in the event of a crash.
With our E36's (1997 BMW 328iC), it was a common occurrence to get an "airbag light" after someone rode in the back seat. The wiring harnesses for the front seat were loosely attached under the seat, and rear seat passengers would kick the wires, causing them to briefly become unplugged. If continuity is lost, even for a millisecond, the SRS computer kicks out an error code and lights the SRS light, which cannot be reset unless you have an SRS reset tool.
Well, sure as shit, the van pops the SRS light and the instrument cluster display advises us to take the van to a "workshop" for repairs. I am envisioning old-world craftsmen and cuckoo-clocks here. This went off while Mr. See was driving, putting him in a panic. I told him to relax - it was likely a seat switch. And sure enough, that evening, Mr. See rotated the driver's seat and said, "what's this loose wire?" The seatbel switch wire was chopped clean off - sliced by the seat swivel as cleanly as by guillotine. The wire was just hanging there, waiting to be chopped - not secured properly or armored with a corrugated wire loom. Again, people wouldn't put up with this in cars, right? Although I guess I put up with it for a decade or so with my BMWs. But I have a high threshold of pain.
All that being said, we love "Aunt Helga" and hope she gives us many miles of enjoyment. But like with any RV, she has a continual punch list of things that need fixing, adjustment, or re-working. But that's RVing for you. Read the stickers!
