Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 02:29:10 -0400
Reply-To: michael schiesser <drschiesser@bigplanet.com>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: michael schiesser <drschiesser@bigplanet.com>
Subject: 90 westy price
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I would say make a check list of all the things that are not working or may
need repair.
Was it exposed to salt in the east?undercarriage rust? propane tanks go
first.
orig paint?
Seats on a scale of 1-5
What does "blown engine" mean? How much to fix? If it's more than a few K
you might look for a new one, an alternate to the maintanence hungry
engineering feat I dont pretnend to have any nostalgic affection for.
top ripped at all? screens?
Does it have ac and does it work, theres no way for you to know unless the
answer is no.
Does it have a sound system? Alarm?
Does the frisdge work?
Aux battery?
Aux heater?
Windows intact, cracks?
Tires new or old? Quality tires like michelen or Peice o crap like decateur
firestone?
Brake service recent?
Front end/tie rods serviced? Allignment in last 20K?
I am almost embarrased to tell this story of how much I paid for my vanagon
and I got ripped off so bad. I feel so damn naive, like a sucker so since
it's Friday (again) the list serve can double as my psychotherapy, keep in
mind this all happened 3 years ago, so 89 now is different than '89 in '97.
I was looking for an 88 or newer westy in may of 1997, decided to sell my 71
bus, my 1960 camper and my 73 bug and go water cooled. I was looking for low
miles, white, captains chairs Poptop, the westy thing, had to have it right
away. Within 12 hours of when I decided what I was looking for I was getting
off the ferry from Vashon Island with my then girlfriend, now wife and saw
the exact van of my dreams sitting there with the top up and a for sale
sign, cleaner than a whistle, it loooked new. Supposidly 64K miles, $18,
400.. Putting together cash was sort of a technicality for me, I figured Id
take out a loan and put whatever didn't make the blue book on my credit card
(Blue book $12K).
Dissappointments included
Fridge wouldn't light-$85
LP gas leak
Winsheild cracked (noticed on my way home)-$225
AC busted-$1000 estimate (I am the one recently posting plans to rip out the
AC, make more room, who needs it?)
The worst was when I filled it up with Gas and the thing leaked all over the
station and all the way home. I had to drop the gas tank the first week I
had it and spent 2 days under it fixing it-$100 for new gaskets etc.
Told it had one new head -it did but wasn't put on correctly. $2000 two year
later for 2 new heads at 95K
$1000 in hoses (par for the course)
The vehicle had been painted, didn't find that out til later, I just thought
it was in good shape.
I wonder about the speedometer being set back too, the guy I bought it from
was some Hippy dude named Tim In Seattle, hen owns a sandwich shop in the U
district, a worthless prick IMO
THere is a westy serial tag on the side and the serial #s are all scratched
out deliberately, I always was curious what that was all about. Probably a
stolen rig.Hope this doesn't sound too familiar, it'd hate for it to get
repossesed.
I figure the only way to get my $ out of it is to love it to death and drive
it into the ground.
I've camped in it over 150 nights, took platy of naps and cooked a billion
lunches on the road, it's the best.
A mechanic in Mass said it was worth $2500, I told him to go to hell.
$2,500, can you beleive that?!!!! He said he was some sort of regional
expert on Vanagons. Metric Systems in Cambridge. None of the stuff he said
was going to go bad on me ever did. He told me my tranny needed a complete
overhaul and was leaking fluid all over the road, I went to a tranny
specialist and they charged me $43 to look at it and said it was perfect 15K
miles ago. What a total Jerk.He was bragging about some squeeky clean rig he
had figured was worth about $15K.
Michael Schiesser
89 Westfalia
Seattle WA
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