Date:         Mon, 3 Apr 1995 09:32:58 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Johnson <sjohnson@pcocd2.intel.com>
Subject:      Re: Should I Buy this Synchro?

So John Anderson says:
> 
> My Dad is in the market for a replacement for his current 150,000
> mile Caravan which he bought after 5 VW vans as he was pissed off
> at our local dealer, well he was considering a friends '93 MV which
> the guy still owes $19k and would part with for $17k, clean low miles
> but I thought this was a ludicrous amount of money for a vehicle and
> have been looking for alternatives for him, enter a nice maroon '87
> Synchro I saw in a parking lot this weekend, went up to the guy and
> asked if interested in selling, he was for the right price, van has
> front ground effects (first year right?), rear heater, A/C, new tires,
> 5 alloys, power mirrors, rear diff lock, pretty much standard stuff for that
> year.  Body is very nice, one rust spot on seam behind drivers front
> wheel weel, pretty common, our '86 was going there as well.  The guy
> has owned 2.5 years and each spring climbs under and paints scrapes, etc
> with cold galvanizing compound then reundercoats, looked real good.
> He is 2nd owner, all dealer service records since new, 65,000 miles.
> The kicker is this, brand new 2.1 Wasserboxer, dealer installed, with
> new clutch etc and new front exhaust manifold at the same time, with
> labor bill for $3500 last fall (ouch).  The guy said will sell $8000
> firm,

$8,000 for an '87 Synchro with a new engine?  Holy smokes!  What do 
you want?!?  Dicker?!?  He's willing to dicker?!?  What a steal.  Now
if it were me, I would already be driving the van.  But wait!  Will
your dad do all of the maintenance things that we on the list do (e.g.
bleed the cooling system regularly) to keep our babies running, or is 
he the type that will wait till it starts to fall apart?  If he is
the latter, I would have him only consider the EV Multivan because
the Vanagon does require specific attention that IMHO can only be
gleened from this list or from other sources like LIMBO or NEATO.
If not the EV then he should stick with the, ahem, other make.

On the other hand, if he is a pretty meticulus in maintaining
his van(s) and can use you as a resource for information on 
how to sustain his vanagon from this list, then, by all means,
get the Synchro.

Steven 

sjohnson@pcocd2.intel.com