Date:         Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:57:50 -0600
Reply-To:     Luiz Claudio Valdetaro <luizclaudio@VALDETARO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Luiz Claudio Valdetaro <luizclaudio@VALDETARO.COM>
Subject:      Re: first time buyer
In-Reply-To:  <AANLkTik5NavB8i3TtgfAdMBvxzFe_URprNVoYfMt7ag_@mail.gmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

My experience might not add much to this debate, but here it is.

I bought my Vanagon GL brand new model 91 in 1990. Allways maintained at
the dealer in Hermosa Beach while in warranty. Once warranty expired,
maintained at a local shop. One day, due to a stupidity of mine, I
completely fried the engine (at approximately 130K miles). Aquired a new
engine and had the local mechanic install it. It worked fine for 3
months and started making a bad noise. Took it to the dealer , they gave
me a new engine even though they had not installed the bad one. Moved to
Dallas and at approximately 210K miles the automatic transmission went.
Had a new one installed at a local transmission shop. It now has 240K
miles. My wife uses it to drive around the little suburb we live.
Everybody in town knows that van. It had only very minor accidents thru
its life. Always parked outside at this time it needs a paint job, new
carpet. The front suspension makes a creeking noise that I don't know
what it is. Asides from that, everything works.

My point is, I keep records of everything I do, even gas fill-ups.
Excluding Gaz, I spent to date 13 thousand dollars in maintenance,
including a new engine and transmission. Not bad for 21 years. Take care
of it and it will last forever.

Luiz

On 1/17/2011 5:59 PM, Mike South wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I bought a van remotely and did not take appropriate precautions.  I
> consider myself very, very lucky, now that I know much more about what I
> should have had looked at, but didn't.
>
> When you're buying, you generally are looking at reducing your costs since
> you have in your head the idea of getting the best price possible.  That can
> tweak your judgment with respect to whether to spend the money to get a
> competent inspection.
>
> But when you're buying a 20+-year-old car, very, very expensive problems can
> easily be overlooked by the novice buyer.  Also, they are long on charm.
>   That probably increases the chances that people will be driving them
> because they love the concept, and unfortunately don't really know much
> about maintenance.  (I mean, think of the demographic that is attracted to
> these things--hippies, surfers, dopers, the August Machina cult, even people
> with dreadlocks putting Ford engines in them...basically you'll never find a
> more wretched hive of scum and villainy.)
>
> It is worth the money to pay a competent, vanagon-experienced person to take
> a good, thorough look at it.  If you do buy it, it would have been the first
> thing to do anyway, before driving it anywhere, and if it ends up telling
> you not to buy it, it probably saved you at least ten times the amount you
> spent on the inspection.
>
> mike
>
> On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Brad Pauly<bpauly@gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I think I'm finally ready to take the plunge. 10 years ago I was
>> searching pretty seriously but never pulled the trigger. This time I
>> think I'm ready. I was hoping to get some first time buyer advice.
>> I've been looking for '86 and newer Westys. Originally I was set on a
>> full camper, however, I think I'd be really happy with a weekender (at
>> least at first).
>>
>> I'm not really a "car guy." I'm actually an engineer on paper so I can
>> understand most of that stuff. I do like tinkering, but it's been with
>> bicycles all my life which are decidedly less complex. I have two main
>> questions.
>>
>> Should I avoid out-of-state vans? Not having experience working on
>> cars it makes me a little nervous. If I could find a good local
>> mechanic to make sure things are okay I'd feel much better though.
>>
>> What about older vans? Am I needlessly limiting myself with '86 and newer?
>>
>> Thanks for any advice or feedback!
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Brad
>>