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Date:         Fri, 5 Oct 2001 10:25:01 -0500
Reply-To:     Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Diesel?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I lived in Colorado Springs for about a year and in my opinion you should hang in there and keep looking for a Westfalia there is just so much more you can do in a Westy. I'm not a waser boxer fan but I think they tend to do well with the altitude and the mountains in your area. A diesel that is broke is worth almost nothing same goes for any other broken car. Try to find something that is running fairly well and will give you at least a year of good service; even with 2000cc aircooled you're looking at 1500$ minimum for a rebuilt engine and with WaserBoxers it can go as high as 3000$ so the initial value has to be there in considering your purchase. If you find a vehicle that you like try to get the owner to let you take a couple of 100 mile local trips in the vehicle. Give him a substantial deposit and take it for a drive. I just sold an 81 Westfalia Air Cooled and I encouraged potential buyers to make a few local trips before making their purchase. As things worked out I sold it to a fellow that had already had Westys and he did his 20 point check list and left for Houston in it (250 Miles). I heard back from him and he's run a few thousand miles without any problems. However every used car is *buyer beware* even if you get it from your Dad. I looked at about ten Vanagons / Westys before I found the one that I bought, it took about a year to find the Westy that I've now had for seven years. Keep looking. I can't help you on WaserBoxers but if you need a checklist for aircooled I can supply it.

Stan Wilder

On Fri, 5 Oct 2001 06:47:24 -0700 Craig Spaeth <spaeth@GORGE.NET> writes: > We had a diesel Westy for just over a year. It slept four got > 25-30mpg and you > could make hot chocolate without really getting out of bed... as > good as this > sounds we have two little girls that usually go to sleep on road > trips. This > translates to us wanting to cover a lot of ground while they sleep. > The diesel is > not good for this. If you are patient and enjoy the world at your > own pace it is > an awesome vehicle. I have driven old split window busses my whole > driving career > and the diesel vanagon makes the splitties look fast. Part of it is > the loooow > gearing. They rev really high on the highway. You will spend most of > your time > around 55-60mph. Any hill (I am talking about normal freeway rises > not just > mountain passes) or headwind will drop you to 40mph. We now have a > 90 Gas powered > Westy multi-van and love it. The mileage sucks but we can cruise at > 70 and pull > most hills at around 60. I still miss the diesel from time to time. > It had a ton > of character. We got passed by some friends returning from a VW > show. I saw them > later and they said they though we had blown up our engine. We were > going very > slow and there was smoke coming out the back. I just said no it's a > diesel. > Good luck deciding, > Craig > the Gorge VW club > ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.


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