Re: (ET) Re: Buying group

["David Roden (Akron OH USA)" <roden ald net>]

> I believe Bill Gunn has originals of all the prints. ;-)

Thanks for making that point, Christopher.

I know I sound negative here, but why do we have to reinvent the wheel?  
OK, Bill's mower decks are expensive.  I priced one; it was over $1,200.  
But so are the new mower decks for the Electric Tractor Corp.'s tractors.

So maybe you can start some kind of organization and make one for 
(pulling a number out of the air) $900.  I'm not sure you're gaining 
anything, when one can buy a used ET for much less than that and get a 
(usually) decent deck with rebuildable motors.

What do you want to do with this buying group?  Have you really thought 
through all the implications?

If you buy a Corvair, Triumph TR-3, or some other similar long-
discontinued automobile, you pretty much can't use it as regular 
transportation because you can't count on getting the parts to fix it 
when you need them.  

Do you realize how fortunate we are to have someone who supports these 
obsolete machines with parts and thoughtful advice?  The last parts 
source for Citicars and Comuta-Cars, electric cars which sold about 2,200 
copies between 1975 and 1982, just started disposing of their inventory. 
As near as I can figure, the sales didn't justify the expense of 
maintaining the stock.  

Bill Gunn sells good parts at a fair price, along with advice that rivals 
the quality of that in an old-fashioned hardware store.  But if Bill's 
sales don't support the expense of rebuilding, fabricating, 
commissioning, and stocking repair parts, do you think he'll keep on 
doing it?  We'll be in the same position as the C-car owners are now.  Do 
we want that to happen?

Please forgive me.  Here comes strong language.  It's strong because I 
really feel strongly about this.  

<soapbox>

The American mantra is cheaper, cheaper, cheaper; the only thing that 
matters is how much you pay in the store. This has led to the current 
crop of tin-can-and-thin-plastic lawn equipment which lasts only a few 
seasons at best.

Bill will only keep supplying parts as long as he can earn a decent 
return on the enterprise.  Too much tinkering with the fragile web of ET 
supply can backfire.  Unless you want to turn your ET into a collector's 
piece, just something that you have around to play with while you do the 
real work of maintaining your property with a gas tractor, please don't 
risk putting our most reliable source of repair parts out of business.

</soapbox>

Thanks for putting up with my rant.


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
1991 Solectria Force 144vac
1991 Ford Escort Green/EV 128vdc
1979 General Engines ElectroPed 24vdc
1974 Honda Civic EV 96vdc
1970 GE Elec-trak E15 36vdc
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