Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 09:11:38 -0700
Reply-To: BRENT CHRISTENSEN <bchristensen@INFOGENESIS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: BRENT CHRISTENSEN <bchristensen@INFOGENESIS.COM>
Subject: Re: Found an 89 Westy - Need Advice on Value
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
Phil:
This sounds high, unless you live here in California. I assume you are
talking US Dollars? My personal opinion is that $1 extra spent for a really
clean vehicle is $5 saved in parts, frustration, and pain down the road, so
it may be a good investment. However, I have seen plenty of clean late
Westies FS in other parts of the country for around $10k or a little less.
OTH, here in Santa Barbara (and coastal California in general) I spent two
years looking at Westies and Syncro Westies in the $10,000 to $20,000 range,
and I was always astounded at the poor condition of most that were under
$13,000 or so. (I even looked at one that had been tipped over TWICE and
repainted with an "Earl Sheib" type $199 paint job - the owner was asking
$12,000 for it, and it was in TERRIBLE condition with oil dripping from the
engine and mud all over the interior)
Good luck on your search,
Brent Christensen
'89 GL Syncro Westy (paid $18,000)
Santa Barbara, CA
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf Of
Phil Walker
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 8:12 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Found an 89 Westy - Need Advice on Value
I found a 89 Westy in my same town. I took it for a test drive last night.
The van is in really good condition. Everything works, it runs well, I let
it idle for a while in the driveway, no change in engine temperature. The
heads were done by a local shop not too long ago....it has 130K. It is a
manual. Clean body, clean inside.
Now for the kicker. The asking price is about 13K. I get the feeling that
the price of these vans is very arbitrary, (just my feeling). Kelly blue
book puts the value at about 14K, NADA and Edmuson at about 8K. What is up?
Part of me tells me to buy the best van I can afford because they are no
longer around, duh, and chances are I'll be keeping it a while. I just
didn't want to spend so much on my first van especially when, with the
mileage, things can still go wrong (clutch, suspension, etc.)
Also, there is a small bubbling of paint behind and below the gas cap on the
right hand side in the seam. I'm sure others have seen this bubbling. The
question is how much metal needs to be removed (if any) to stop the rusting.
My experience with older cars and rust is that the rust usually is worse
than it looks. Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks in advance for the help, and thanks to all of the people who
responded to my last post.
Phil Walker
-hoping to have a Westy soon-
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