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Thanks to all who responded for the support. I will also look into the Harrisburg VW club. And j_jonik, I agree with a lot of what you said. I know that in some ways, the goal is to spread money out to the small mechanic shops throughout the state. This is a peculiar state in that some things seem to recognize the working class strength of PA, while on the other hand so much is such a burden on the masses of people that are living hand to mouth... As it turns out, between naiivity and shock at the list of failures, many of the items listed are more "reasonable" than I initially thought. I read through the checklist put out by PA online last night and some things that don't appear to be "safety" oriented are actually on the checklist they have to go through (like muffler). So, from memory, my list of failures reads like this: 1) Front side parking light lens - section broken off (alright, fine I can fix it) 2) Wipers don't work - They actually did on the the way to the shop (it was a dewy morning). I don't know what they did to it, maybe the fuse blew in a fit of bad timing. 3) Horn plate on steering wheel - I wrote to the list about this problem a couple of days ago. I haven't had time to find the plastic connection parts yet. 4) Upper and lower ball joints - I don't know about this. I do have a weird front end rattle on high speed turns, but I had the car checked by a shop in Wisconsin this Spring when I moved to PA and my fiance was driving the VW. They said ball joints looked fine and the only problem they could guess at was play in the steering box. 5) Steering dampner bad - I'm not sure if the shop in WI looked at this. I replaced it in '99 or '00. I don't know the life of these, especially given the front end rattle mentioned above... 6) Muffler - 2 small visible leaks. Evidently any visible leaks or "external repair" is grounds for failing here. 7) Speedometer - fluctuates a lot at low speeds, but is fine over about 30 with no fluctuations. This might be a marginal item if it were the only problem. 8) Odometer - known problem, however, not grounds for failing if the car is >25 years old. 9) Drums oversized - I think he means they had been turned too much. I will have to pull them and measure them to find out. 10) Rear brake cylinders siezed - This might be true. The WI shop mentioned this and said they had some tool to fix it. Evidently, it didn't fix it for long. :) 11) Rear brake shoes heat cracking - I haven't looked, but it's possible 12) Something about the rear part of the frame being rusted and breaking loose. I haven't a clue what this means, so I will go back and talk to them about it tonight after work. So, basically, most of it does appear to be somewhat reasonable. I think that some could be a matter of perspective and a mechanic more familiar with VW's might perceive things differently, but I'm not sure. My fiance picked the car up because I had to stay late at work, so I didn't get to talk to them until this morning. They guy who did most of the inspection wasn't there yet, but another guy who helped was. My initial reason for bringing the car back was that they forced open the glove compartment (because it sticks sometimes) and broke the latch. They never told us this. So, I jumped in the car and nearly got myself killed at the bottom of the hill because the rear brakes basically didn't work at all and the pedal when straight to the floor with little affect on the brakes. I understand some of the affects of pulling the drum off and loosening the brakes to allow it to, but they didn't re-tighten it to make it reasonably safe to drive. If they would have told me about the glove box, it would have been understandable, but I'm a little disappointed with their lack of integrity by just ignoring it. I'm going to stop now. This is way too long. Thanks for sticking through this epic email if you made it this far! Best regards, Eric '72 sq ______________________________________________________ Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate3/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~