Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:22:58 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: They're GIVING Vanagons away in San Diego!
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'why shops can't figure it out'...............
two factors pop into my mind.
'Many shops' are too busy.....even harassed feeling.........with cars to
fix.
They get used to OBD and computers telling them where to focus their
attention when something doesn't work right.
A vanagon doesn't have that capability of course.
So they would have to *actually think* and dig and trace wires and use
wiring diagrams ..........or do tests on components.
There's more and easier money to be made on other cars.
2nd factor..........For many shops............if they fear it's going to be
a 10+ hour weird project to figure out.........
they get nervous because they could be into it way, way too many
hours...........
more than they could charge for almost.........
so for really weird things they are leery to even get involved.
And besides.................there are many cars needing plain jobs like
timing belts, water pumps, brake jobs etc that are readily profitable.
so why should they go digging in a 20+ year old vanagon given that ? .......
I wish they would......
and I wish they actually cared about delivering good value to the customer.
it's not that the vans are hard to fix............we know that. They can be
tricky at times......
but for 'the average consumer' having to deal with either VW dealerships (
and even they don't know squat about vanagons sometimes ) .............
or regular car repair shops........
people do not have access to quality, caring, repair at a reasonable cost.
..............thus beatiful vanagons show up in junkyards. Durn shame.
I notice that too............not crashed.
Just saw a Eurovan myself in a junkyard..........not rolled or crashed or
smashed or rusted.......
interior clean even .........but there it sits forlornly in the
boneyard...........likely because the owner took it to some shop for a
problem......
and qot a quote for an entire engine reubild........or auto trans
replacement ............that was more than the van's owner could
handle........
so they just gave up on it.
well, I'm saving as many as I can afford to.
And, given the incredible versitality of vanagons ...........
the good ones will just go up in value.
about an 84 passenger vanagon .............even running those can hardly be
given away. There must have been gajillions of 84's sold.
I have one just like that one in the ad........
belongs to a buddy of mine...........but it should go to a new home.
it's all there except the trans. Don't want much for it either.....located
in southern oregon.
Will also sell major components and parts off it. 84 with manual trans,
no PS. named Bruinhilda, if that matters !
scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "mark drillock" <mdrillock@COX.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 5:31 PM
Subject: Re: They're GIVING Vanagons away in San Diego!
> It is just a passenger van, with no engine. Too much work and cost to
> make it run again and pass smog. Better deals here all the time.
>
> I have seen nice vans at the San Diego junkyards many, many times. Full
> Westys, Wolfsburgs, Carats, name it.
>
> I'm sure Vanagon people from rust areas would cry when they saw perfect
> rust free bodies jacked up for vultures to pick at.
>
> When I see a fresh Vanagon set out I like to look it over real closely
> to see if I can figure out why it is there. Most times I see plenty of
> evidence of recent repairs and new parts that suggest an owner who cared
> enough to try and keep it going. Often times I find a simple wiring
> issue that caused the owner grief that shops could not solve. The same
> degraded wiring problems come up over and over. I have written about
> them here many times over the years. Why shops can't figure them out is
> beyond me.
>
>
> Mark
> "vulture"
>
>
> B Feddish wrote:
>> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 1:52 PM, RICHARD KOERNER <rjkinpb@sbcglobal.net>
>> wrote:
>>> http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/zip/1043001384.html
>>>
>>> Wish I had a place to store....
>>>
>>
>>
>> Hhmmm. Something's not right. Look at that van, that thing is way too
>> nice
>> to be scrap metal. On top of that, the poster says if the ad is still up
>> then the van is still available. How could a free van last more than 10
>> minutes or Craigslist.
>>
>> Or are just Californians crazy....
>>
>> Bryan
>>