Introducing a new member...

[Esprit80]

Hi folks,


I'm new on the board and a first posting is the ideal moment to introduce myself...

My name is Xavier Brulez, I'm 39 years old and I live in a small town called ARDOOIE which is approx. 80 miles from Brussels. Yep, I'm Belgian, someone from the old continent :D

It's a few weeks that I follow the Dodge forum and now I made an entry because since last saturday I'm owning a '99 Dodge B1500 Carvo Van.
It's my first mopar after having some GM stuff in my garage.
The Dodge is the fourth american car in my collection, so you may call me american car nut :gr_patrio . The collection excist of a 1980 Pontiac Firebird Esprit ( my nickname ;) ) which is a restoration project, a 1991 Pontiac Firebird with 3.1L V6, a 1987 Chevy Caprice Classic Wagon and now finally a Dodge Ram Van.

Extra personal info... I'm married with my lovely wife Mirella and I have two kids, a 16 yrs old daughter Ayla and a 14 yrs old son Yaron. I'm electrotechnician for profession, so if you have a defective washing machine or your fridge has gone, give a yell... :D

The reason that I bought this Van is to use it as service intervention car for my repairs and also for using it as a 'tourbus' for the rockband where my daughter is singing with; a band called... California :cool: For those who want to check it out what kind of music they make, you can visit the my space website: myspace,com/californiarockz

I'll add also some pics of the Van:


Edit: I can't post pics !?


Grtz,

Xavier :drivingz:

[Dodgevanman]

Welcome Xavier! We have other members from Europe and it's cool to see people still like American vehicles (although the Ram Vans were built in Canada ;))

I think you need 5 or 10 posts to attach pics.

[van-nut]

Yeah, Welcome Xavier!

This is a great board with tons of usefull info (would that be metric tons in Europe?? :thatfunny )

Anyway, its good to have you here. Your van looks very close to mine, except mine has the double doors on the side, not the single slider.

Pete

[Esprit80]

Hi,

Thanks for the welcome :)

@ Van-nut: I think we have the same Van... mine has also the double doors on the side, but it is indeed very difficult to see on the little avatar pic.
When the board allows it, I'll post some better pics of the car ;)

The speedo and odo are in kilometres, so that's easy for us to use it over here :D
American cars ( or Canadian... ) aren't frequently seen on our Belgian roads. First reason is the higher fuel consumption and also the government tax system over here... . The taxes which has be paid for a car are linked at the 'cubic inches', for example the taxes for my '91 Firebird with a 3.1L are € 850,- ( approx $ 1,050.- a year !! ), a 5 litre engine costs - don't be shocked !! - almost € 1.800,- ( approx $ 2,250.- ) each year... . Another hot item are the fuelprices... 1 litre supreme has reached now € 1,31 or $1.64 a litre!!! I think I don't have to say more why US cars are seen so less over here... . :VHOT:

Those who drives one are mostly US car freaks, they have their car as a hobby object, :gr_patrio it's also common knowledge that a hobby may cost some money :D

I'm glad I may join an american club, so we can deal intercontinental information about our cars :rck:
If you need some practical - off the record - information about Europe, don't be affraid to ask :cheers:

Grtz,

Xavier :wavey:

[Esprit80]

Hi,

Here some pics of my Van when I picked it up at my dealer:


http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/91Blackbird/Dodge%20Ram%20Van/ramvan_9.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/91Blackbird/Dodge%20Ram%20Van/ramvan_10.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/91Blackbird/Dodge%20Ram%20Van/ramvan_11.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/91Blackbird/Dodge%20Ram%20Van/ramvan_12.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/91Blackbird/Dodge%20Ram%20Van/ramvan_13.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/91Blackbird/Dodge%20Ram%20Van/ramvan_14.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/91Blackbird/Dodge%20Ram%20Van/ramvan_15.jpg

Xavier :wavey:

[Dodgevanman]

Nice van!!