It's kind of a funny story, but not for the PO. I asked the dealer where he got the vehicle (they have to tell you), and it apparently had a fuel injection problem the California dealer could not fix. After two years VW bought the car back under the CA lemon law. The Seattle dealer said their FI expert fixed it and they warranted it. Well, as soon as I tried to cruise at about 35 mph it would buck and stumble, so I brought it back. They still couldn't fix it so I bought the Bentley and started to go through the FI system. I'm sure most of you have figured it out by now--it was a mis-adjusted throttle position switch, done at the factory, since the paint seal on the screw had not been broken. It was a couple of turns off, and of course behaved just like the test procedure for the switch said it should, bucking and stumbling when held closed and the throttle is opened. The poor PO put up with this for two years and 30,000 miles, and at least two factory trained mechanics couldn't fix it in all that time. I got a nearly new Westy that had hardly been camped in. Failure to follow logical trouble shooting procedures! Stuart -----Original Message----- From: George Laubach [mailto:skiplaubach@comcast.net] Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2013 7:34 PM To: Stuart MacMillan Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Selling my 1989 Bluestar ($25k) Stuart, Curious what were the problems with the '84 that caused it to be a "warranty buy-back"? Skip Sent from my iPad On Dec 28, 2013, at 9:13 PM, Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM> wrote: > Correct. The major difference is there are two warranties on a > vehicle bought from a reputable (and state licensed and regulated) > dealer like Go Westy. The first is the written warranty, and the second is the "implied" > warranty. If you have a problem you think they are responsible for > and they refuse to fix it, you can cause them a lot of PR trouble that > could have a big impact on their business. > > Typically a reputable shop will either fix problems or refund your money, > even to the point of buying it back at full price. In fact, my '84 Westy > was a VW warranty buy back that I purchased in '86 from a dealer. But > that's another story. > > A private seller will offer a vehicle only "as is," and it should be > cheaper. > > Since GW offers a warranty, you can assume they have gone through > everything to justify their price. At a minimum the brakes, tires, > and other safety related equipment will have been brought up to snuff to avoid liability. > You won't be stuck with a lemon. > > Stuart > > Nice '85 Westy--yours for $25k, no warranty. Not even half a block. |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.