Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 21:42:35 -0500 (EST)
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: James N Gagliardi <jg6r+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: FS: '85 VW Vanagon (fwd)
Excerpts from audi: 1-Mar-95 Re: FS: '85 VW Vanagon (fwd) by David
Kao@eng.sun.com
> >>
> >>> 2. If you are a mechanic, it would be a great travel van for a
> >>> great price ($900), as all else is in great shape
> >> ^^^^^^^^
> >> worth it for a parts vehicle alone!
> >>
> >>>
> >>>It has air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, is dark blue, nice
> >>>paint, new radials, water-cooled so it goes much faster than old buses,
> >>>and has about 90,000 miles on the car, and about 20,000 on the rebuilt
> >>
> >>
> >>WAAHHHH, it's obvious that Santa lives in California in the off
season. Why
> >>don't I EVER see deals like this within walking distance. This is impeding
> >>the growth of my fleet severely! tim s.
> >>
> >>
>
> It appears to be a very attractive deal but... I thought about it for a
> minute then I think people should really think about the "but" possibility
> more before getting too excited.
>
> Remember it's a watercooled vanagon, not an aircooled brick. This means
> if the engine needs work it could easily take $3k or more out of your
> pocket. What if there are problems on FI, brakes, tranny... It will not be
> cheap if you have any of these problems.
>
> Sorry for being negative. I got my 83 westy (oh, it's watercooled, just
> like my 84 vanagon) very cheap. But then I might need new heads. I am hoping
> new head gaskets will fix it.
>
I agree with his negativity. I was given an '85 vanagon last year. At
first I thought that there was no way to lose out on such a cheap
vehicle. I ended up selling it for about $500. It didn't even have any
real engine problems, but it still wasn't worth fixing. Here's what it
needed.
4 Tires.
Exhaust system headers through muffler excluding cat.
Brakes front and back, rotors, pads, shoes.
One rear wheel bearing.
Front end was loose and it wasn't a ball joint or tie rod(steering rack?)
New bushings and adujustment in shifter linkage.
Needed clutch bled
Sliding door didn't quite work.
Shocks
CV joint Boots
Lots of dents nicks scratches rust etc.
Intermittent missing at highway speeds(someone mentioned something about
some recall on a wiring harness?) Occaionally it would stall out
completely and not start for a few hours for no apparent reason.
Then engine had 142k on it and had good compression ~155 psi, and had
never had the heads off and didn't leak any coolant. I assumed that it
was just about to run out of good luck. The guy I sold it to brought it
to the dealer and when they called back with the estimate to get it on
the road again(~about $4000, he mailed them the title and it went to the
junkyard.
I don't want to discourage anyone from buying a vanagon, just never buy
one sight unseen.
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