Date:         Tue, 1 Apr 2008 14:11:22 -0400
Reply-To:     BJ Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         BJ Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Subject:      Re: This GoWesty is really starting to annoy me....
In-Reply-To:  <013801c8941a$ec31db10$6500a8c0@480037D956F7448>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Sorry but things have just moved past me allot farther than I noticed.  It
does not seem that long ago that I was in Craig's position (who wrote "so it
turns out i like vanagons.....") out there on the weekend replacing one
burnt engine with another used one. I did the exact same thing in college, I
had to sell my car stereo to pay for a used beetle engine. I also had to go
remove it myself in VA.  Fast forward to the 80's and I purchased a '72
Helsinki Westfalia for $400 with a blown engine.  $1,500 later I was on the
road.  In 1996 I got my present 1983 Westy as a daily driver. My mechanic
had just rebuilt the engine, new paint, new coolant pipes, AC, etc. He
charged me $3,500 plus I gave him my old engineless '84 GL.  I drove that
van back in forth to work for years.  All in all the point of driving VW's
were twofold, the first one was that they were cheap and second they have
some magic power over you that for some people just cant shake.   I have
hundreds of pictures from camping over the last 20 years and I don't see
myself ever kicking the VW camper habit. I love this thing.  Probably about
7 years ago I was taking a route to a clients site that required lots of
highway merges. The 1.9 could not handle it. I decided on a 3rd car at the
time. I purchased a Subaru Legacy. I still drove the '83 around town and it
has always been my pickup truck. What I really hadn't been noticing was the
disappearance of all the VW vans around here. Back in '96 there were still
plenty of Vanagons around here and even bay windows.  During that whole time
my van has been, and still is, a partial daily driver and our camper.  Now
it's probably 1 of 3 in my town.  I guess I have not been paying as much
attention as I should. Nobody are driving these things to work anymore (OK a
few), they are storing them in their garage and bringing them out for a
camping trip.  Somewhere over the last 12 years it went from $3,500 for a
new engine, paint, etc. to $25,000+ and I wasn't paying attention.


I have no doubt that GoWesty sells a good van. I have also never heard a
complaint from one of their customers.  It's just that I feel they charge
way above and beyond the restoration cost of the vehicle. If it came time
for me to buy a restored van or restore the one I have I would not have them
do it. This is just a matter of opinion. I feel I can get the same quality
job for les money somewhere else. I also find it humorous that they buy
these vans super cheap and tell me it would not be in my best interest to
just buy it from them as-is. They ALL "need" to be restored.  They also play
the game where they "sell" you the van for say $5,000 then add the
restoration costs later. The game here is to keep the buyer from paying
sales tax on the completed vehicle. That can burn you down the road.  Sorry,
I can't jump on the "More power to ya!" bandwagon of charging high prices
just because you can.  Nobody on this list seems to be yelling "Yeah Exxon!
You made $40 billion this quarter in profits, way to go!". Sorry, this is my
opinion and I'm not backing down from it.

It's too bad that hippie chick can't buy your van for $1,500. If things had
continued on the way they were going she could have bought mine for $1,500.
I paid $3,500 for it back in '96, figure it'd be worth $1,500 today. Nope,
according to Berhards up in Allentown I can get $7,000 for my van now which
seems ridiculous.  Like I said, I never look at what my van is worth and get
excited. The reason is I always plan on having a VW Van so the current
prices are what I'd have to PAY to buy a new one. . Astronomically rising
prices does not help me in that category.  I just find it sad that these
vans are now becoming more of a collector's item and a toy for the rich than
what they were meant to be. Luckily prices for parts, part in fact to places
like Bus Depot, etc. have dropped dramatically over the last 12 years.

And I'm still dreaming VW will build another camper. That would be great
that when I buy another camper in 10 years it would be something relatively
recent even if used.

Bryan