Editor's Note: In the August issue, a New Hampshire reader asked Dave Duffey for recommendations on the best vehicle(s) to transport gun dogs to the field. Dave replied with a discussion of what has served him well over the years, noting that utility and reliability are much more important considerations than newness and fancy extras. He now offers the following additional thoughts.

There are many factors you can come up with that will contribute to the plus and minus, useful or frivolous decisions to be made in seeking out canine friendly, used or new hunting buggies. But it's safe to assume that the bottom line for most everyone is cost and value. At your will, arrive at or discard my conclusions.

Based upon some cursory shopping for a new, versatile landcraft suitable for dog transportation over highway and back roads, any vehicles I considered were well outfitted; and there were no bare, basic, elemental interiors that could be self-customized. They cost between $35,000 and $55,000 per vehicle, depending on non-standard accessories. That was too much for me.

By my best guess, the combined sale or trade-in worth of my three decent looking, well-functioning vehicles, with 270,000 combined miles, might be $9,000, give or take a few hundred each way. I've also saved on car insurance cost by owning three well-used cars vs. a single brand new vehicle.

DOG WAGONS PART ONE

Insurance rates are established when the car is brand new and unless periodically reviewed by the owner, they remain in effect for the life of the car. But the instant your new car is driven off the lot, it depreciates. And right along with that standard loss, your coverage skids as well.

The roads are crowded with vehicles assessed at their new car rate. But if serious accidents occur, owners don't recoup anywhere near what they paid for their new car. So when a several-years-old vehicle is totalled, you receive only the amount your insurer decides it was worth at the time of the crash, which almost certainly isn't going to come close to what it will cost to replace that vehicle.

Should you enjoy auto shopping and still insist on "buying new," however, you ought to be able to "wheel for a good deal," even from a dealer, by buying stock from the lot that remains after next year's models are on the market. Expect the discount to be at least equal to the year's depreciation rate. I lucked out on my 1995 GMC Vanagon, which I bought new in March, 1996, when the current GMC Savannah was replacing the Vanagon.

A dealer had half a dozen or more customized '95s on the lot, but he could not get me a bare-bones or factory customized '96 Savannah. He was amenable to selling a "year old" and outgoing Vanagon for what an almost stripped introductory Savannah would cost.

If memory serves, the Vanagon I picked out had been manufactured in late fall of 1995 and had all the mechanical features of the 1996, the final year of that model. The original sales price was about $35,000. I paid less than $23,000.

As I told the dealer, I really had no use for the abundance of jee-jaws and conveniences in a hunting vehicle. (If I could buy a vehicle without a radio, I would. This one had two radios, a TV, plus sound and soft lighting systems, etc.) Before I stripped it of a lot of the furnishings, with less than 100 miles on it I hit the road for Nebraska, with room enough to carry three dog crates before the captain's seats and electric double-bed rear seat were taken out and stored.