One sees late model Mercedes vehicles used to retrieve winch ropes which, I understand, were donated to the club.
My old club in Germany just took delivery of a brand-spanking new Audi Q5 with the top of the line trim. They use it to retrieve their winch cables. This vehicle and I guess others from other manufacturers were used as test vehicles and don't have a 'VIN', so officially, they don't exist. The Q5 is 'on loan' from Audi and they reserved the right to recall it at any time.
Living near the BMW plant in SC and knowing the now retired VP of production, I asked him if our club could get a nice X5 for our operation. He shuddered at the thought and said that this would be the fastest way to get the Feds, the IRS and lawyers on their tails. So they continue the cruel practice of shredding complete vehicles if a flaw too big to fix within a short time period is detected.
IMHO, introducing winching to the US soaring community is a key for its longtime survival. Our club is winching off a very busy county airport with everything from biz-jets to gyro-planes in attendance and we make it work. We have hosted three winch clinics to promote this economic launch method. One of them was hosted for members of one club and they are seriously working on a plan to acquire a winch.
Quit bitching, roll up your sleeves and do something to make your club or operation a little bit better. As long as a large part of the US glider community thinks that club participation is the act of writing a monthly check and expecting in return the tow plane to appear when they show up with their nice shiny toy, nothing is going to happen! But then again, I may be influenced by my upbringing in one of these socialist European countries, where soaring is well and alive.
Uli