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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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to find me: Home: School: RR 2 Box 34b 1060 Morewood Ave. Vail Hill Road Box 1273 Lyndonville VT Pittsburgh PA 05851 15213 802-626-9032 412-862-3006


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