Date:         Fri, 2 Nov 2007 14:18:43 +1100
Reply-To:     Stephen Overmyer <S.OVERMYER@UWS.EDU.AU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Overmyer <S.OVERMYER@UWS.EDU.AU>
Subject:      Re: The cost of VW Waterboxer ownership - a 15 year summary
In-Reply-To:  <20071031162744.12FA419A5D4@kwd-w2k-avgwy.uws.edu.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Geza Polony [mailto:gezapolony@SBCGLOBAL.NET] 
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 3:26 AM
To: VANAGON@GERRY.VANAGON.COM; Stephen Overmyer
Subject: Re: The cost of VW Waterboxer ownership - a 15 year summary

Good information here! So it works out to a bit more than $100 a month
over the long haul, with everything done by mechanics.

Some of your expenses were for installation of optional items, like
wheels, too, so in a way you could subtract that from maintenance costs.

Disappointing that the AMC heads lasted only 60K miles. It looks like
that was the biggest single repair item of all.

The costs would have been way down, of course, if you had DIY'ed the
whole way along. Things like replacing your alternator ($230) could have
been done for much less.

                                   *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*`*~*


Hi Geza,

Only one AMC head gave trouble after 60,00kms (35k miles) and that was
due to a manufacturing fault. 
The other one, that replaced the original VW heads at around 135,000kms
has never given any trouble and indeed after the recalcitrant one was
later changed, the replacement has also been completely trouble free @
305,800km 

You are quite correct regarding how I could have saved some money on
expenses such as the alternator but we personally know an excellent auto
electrician that had a shop within walking distance of the school where
my wife works (she taught his kids). It was too easy to drop the van off
in the morning and pick up again in the afternoon. Job done right, no
down time for the van and weekend still free to do other stuff.

I did do some things on the van and yes I could have saved some money on
servicing however for most of the time I had the T3 I also had a '68
1500 Beetle and a '76 T2 Double Cab. On these I did 99% of all work
myself. All servicing (every 5000km) and many replacement parts incl
dropping the engines in both vehicles several times. Previously I have
also had a '74 VW Camper, a Mazda B1600 (that required more maintenance
than any VW I have owned) a MK2 Jaguar (that kept me occupied ;-) and a
'65 VW Type 3 Station Wagon. I worked on these cars nearly all the time
too. I was getting over it.
I still have a Land Rover that I do 100% of the work on. I have
to....;-) The other current vehicles in the stable also get serviced at
the same place the T3 was serviced although I have done two serpentine
belt tensioner pulley replacements on the '00 DC. Other than that it has
required very little outside regular 15,000km servicing.

The T3 was the first vehicle I ever purchased brand new and besides not
having the time or inclination to work on a third vehicle concurrently
and have even less time available to do other things I wanted to do on
weekends & holidays, I decided to do things differently and give myself
a break. Besides, I kinda liked the idea of finally having a nice one
owner vehicle with a complete documented service history as well as the
good feeling that this van should never give me trouble out on the open
road. It didn't. Not that it still couldn't have and I'm certainly not
saying that if you work on a van yourself, you're gonna get caught out
on the side of the road sometime. Far from it, but I chose to go this
path since I had the opportunity to do so from new. My treat to myself I
guess....and it certainly was nice not having another vehicle partly
disassembled awaiting parts to arrive. BTDT...Maybe I just reached an
age where I don't wish to spend a considerable portion of my free time
under motor cars.

Also, whilst I did spend a considerable sum on servicing the T3, it has
paid off in being at least partly off set by the excellent resale price
I received for the van without question.

I'm a happy camper....or at least I was...

Cheers,
Steve O
NSW Australia
'92 Transporter WBX Kombi (until tomorrow)
'00 Transporter Double Cab
'03 Transporter double Cab (work truck)
'07 Passat Variant TDI
'78 Land Rover Series 3 109 soft top ute (ex-Aust.Army)