Message:
Thought I'd relate our trip last week to Pittsburgh in our 1995 Rialta with about 20,000 miles on it. Except for blizzard and dealing with the mountains of the Virginias, the trip was fine until the fan belt broke. We were in the area of Beckley, W. Va. and there was not a fan belt in the whole town for our Rialta. We were desperate, middle of snow storm, places closing early so we just parked out at various parking lots, luckily the generator worked so we kept warm for the next 24 hours and slept in spurts at night until we were awakened early morning by snow plows and had to keep moving out of their way. Had cell phone, called Volkswagen, they tried to find a part for us in area and even they couldn't locate one. They gave us the name of a local towing service and suggested we have it towed and let the towing service work on it or try to find someone who could. Luckily in this nightmare, the towing service had a top notch mechanic who ordered a fan belt meant for a Rialta without airconditioning (even though ours had air conditioning) and somehow made it work so we could get on with our trip (didn't need the air conditioner anyway at that time). We got on with our trip and arrived at our destination, Pittsburg University Hospital, at 7:00 that night. This wonderful towing service and mechanic charged us a very fair price we thought of $70 including the part. Of course, we tipped him extra for his excellent service. What a nightmare. At one point, we thought maybe we'd have to cancel my husband's appt. for neck surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, but as it turned out we got there in time, and he had the surgery which was successful and we left Pittsburgh the day after surgery and had an uneventful trip home weather-wise and mechanically. We've only owned the Rialta for about a year, three trips to Wisconsin in good weather and this is the first time we've had mechanical trouble witb it. Anyway, we now need an air conditioner compressor and the correct fan belt to replace the temporary one put on there. So, that may get expensive. Has anyone had to have the air conditioner compressor placed and how expensive was it? Seems strange to need one on such a low-mileage motor. We are wondering if anyone else has had trouble with their, 1995 model or later.
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