Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2016 17:47:19 -0400
Reply-To: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject: Re: '91 westy with 60k mi....$9 grand. on CL
In-Reply-To: <729a65.5dd68f1f.44bfc1ca@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> only 60k orig mi, and manual tranny.. cant believe nobody hasnt bought
> this yet..
>
> http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/cto/5687519353.html
The fellow was willing to meet me 1/2 hour from my house so I gave it a
look. It does appear to legitimately have been in the family since new; two
generations were in the van when it pulled up and they seemed genuinely
sorry to be letting it go. That being said, this Westy looks like it's been
"let go" for a long time already. The odometer doesn't work, so the 60k
miles is not verifiable. He said it stopped working shortly after the last
inspection, about 9 months ago, and estimated mid to upper 60's. The
inspection sticker was faded but it appeared to read a few hundred miles
less than the odometer shows now, which would be consistent with a recent
odometer failure, but to be honest I have seen Westies with 200k miles that
didn't look half as rough as this one. The steering rack leaks. The trans
grinds badly going into 3rd gear. The engine seems to be in good shape from
a cursory look - no valve clatter, peppy on the highway, no oil or coolant
leaks that I could see and the temp gauge hovers at around 40% from the
bottom - but the oil light flashes constantly. He said it's done that for
years. There is a faint coolant smell that seems to be coming from the rear
heater core. The sliding door has about 3/4 inch thick Bondo that is
cracking and it has been partially repainted the wrong color; not sure if
the door could be saved. There is a minor dent in the passenger side front
door and a crack in the front bumper. The paint is in very bad shape, no
way it would buff out and look nice. However the body is very solid; I
noticed no significant rust anywhere. The interior is filthy but had no
major damage that I noticed. The front table and leg, the rear hatch screen,
and the front curtain are missing. The A/C does not blow cold. The poptop
canvas is shot. The sink pump and stove didn't work but I don't know if it
had propane or water in it. He has no repair records for the vehicle, and
said a buddy of his did any work it needed for cash. (Looked more to me like
it just never got serviced.)
It looks like you could clean this Westy up and drive it as it is with
minimal work, until the steering rack gets worse or the trans finally gives
out, but it wouldn't be pretty to look at. If you were on a budget, had a
good used trans and did the work yourself, you could end up with a decent
Westy with a low initial outlay and do the rest over time. But my overall
impression was that once you gave this Westy everything necessary to bring
it to say 8 out of 10 condition, you could probably have paid about the same
for one that didn't need all the work in the first place. He was willing to
go down to $7k cash-in-hand, which he said was his bottom price, but I
passed. I have a friend who is kind of looking for one but I didn't think
this one was worth pursuing even for $7k. Too bad.
Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com
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