Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 20:45:40 -0500
Reply-To: Joe Romas <jromas@COLUMBUS.RR.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Joe Romas <jromas@COLUMBUS.RR.COM>
Subject: Re: New to the vanagon world...
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
Perry,
Pass on this one! First, it's too old to "test drive" from Conneticut to Dallas. However you could get it trucked to you. Second even if it did have AC on it it would take a lot of HP to run it and then your trying to cool a big box! The VW turbo diesel has 68 hp and that's not much for our Vanagons. As I recall my 1.9L 84's wasser is 95 hp and is enough. Also have you ever looked at a auto from the snow belt? I too like the simplicity of vw diesels, including my 99.5 "new" jetta tdi! If we could get the euro van with a TDI VR6 over here that would be great but we can't. With a laptop computer and a VAG-COM they can be worked on also. I've been searching on e-bay for a EV to replace my wife's 90 jetta and my 84 vanagon and have seen several ev's in the dallas area go for under $4k.
Just my thoughts.
Joe
----- Original Message -----
From: Perry Pillard
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 3:19 PM
Subject: New to the vanagon world...
Hey Gang,
Not long back I purchased an '83 Rabbit, with a stock 1.6L turbo diesel. Man, am I impressed with it! Economy, performance, reliability all wrapped up in a neat little bundle. The more I work on the engine, the more I like it, and this started me to thinkin' that maybe I should convert all our family vehicles to diesels. I like the idea that I can work on them and keep the auto mechanics greedy fingers out of my pocket. I also like the idea of 'bio-diesel', and will likely start expirimenting with that.
Well, now I'm in the market to buy a vanagon for my wife to double as both her daily driver and the family camping rig. I want it to have a 1.9L turbo diesel (I know they're rare!). And I want to customize the interior to be able to tote our two children around town and still have the creature comforts of a Westy. Is this do-able? I found an '82 Vanagon with the engine I want for $3500. The engine is only 10K miles old, and the van is in great shape. I'm still talking to the owner to get all the details about it. He seems to be quite a decent fellow, and I have a good feeling about buying from him. A big drawback is that I'm Dallas and he's in Conneticut, which means I would have to fly out there and drive it back, without even the courtesy of a test drive!
Here's a link with all the info he's given me so far: http://www.geocities.com/keyframer/vanagon/index.html, I'd really appreciate if you would look it over and tell me what you think.
What's the likelyhood of the air conditioning still working in this van? I'm in Dallas, and a/c is a requirement for a soccer mom! If it doesn't work, how hard is it to work on? What about installing some aftermarket a/c system? Any thoughts on that?
I've been doin' quite a bit of researchin' and have learned a lot about Vanagon's, Westy's and Syncro's. But I would really appreciate any tips you could give me about what to look for, buying expiriences you've had, and anything else you think I ought to know. Thanks in advance!
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