Letter to friends and troops

As you know, we just completed a short expedition that had us in Fort St John over the long weekend.
That journey was pretty uneventful. We took the car and cruised happily at or just above the speed limit the whole way, even when we ran into a snow storm between Chetwynd and Dawson Creek.
But the car was rattling rather unsettlingly at the back, and one time, while we were negotiating the gravel road that leads to Robin and Mike's place with four of us in the car, there was a sound that resembled two manhole covers, banging together. We put the car in Mike's new garage, jacked up the back, and I crawled under.
Nothing seemed out-of-place or broken or even unusual.
So we drove back to Campbell River, at speed, via the Duffy Lake Road(!)
And did I mention that the brake squeal, which I've been unhappy about since last December? When I took the car in to find out why it was doing that, the verdict: Intermittent, just brake squeal, probably rust on the disks.
OK, no issue then.
The morning after we got back I phoned the VW dealer and described the symptoms. "That sounds like a broken spring or springs," said Michael, the service guy I usually deal with. "We need to deal with that right away; it could be dangerous."
So last Saturday I took the car in, had both rear springs replaced, (presenting my VW-issued credit card in payment!) and drove home.
No rattles whatsoever, and the brakes have stopped squealing.
I can't decide whether to be impressed by the car driving at least 2500km on broken rear springs, or to be annoyed that those springs -- which haven't had hard use at all -- broke at all, or to be astonished that the VW techicians didn't pick the up the problem either originally or when I had my regular service in March...
Regardless, I like the story, and it ended well.

To which Mike Hayes replied:
"As one who has travelled at high speeds on washboard roads with WJ Havelaar at the wheel, my knuckles white as they worked away at my worry beads, I think I can understand why the springs gave out."

And I riposted:
"But that was the van, which is relatively used to gravel roads, and still has its original springs and shocks.
The Golf, on the other hand has led a far more urban lifestyle. I cannot recall when it was off the pavement, before FSJ (and other than the Mount Washington parking lot!) and that was only a matter of two blocks...
So yours is an engaging theory, but lacks verisimilitude."