Date:         Sat, 22 Jul 1995 22:37:19 -0600
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jgladu@bcm.tmc.edu (John Gladu)
Subject:      wheee! Joel, change the stats...

As I bought brake parts for our '90 Vanagon on Tuesday, I dropped in on the
dealer where we bought it originally to remind them that we wanted to buy
another. The used-sales manager (who made his first sale five years ago
with our GL) said he had a low-mileage '89 coming in the next day, but
didn't figure we wanted anything that old...

I gave him my pager number.

He forgot to call me, but we called him this morning and he said he'd just
put it on the lot and it was "perfect".

Pack up the kids and off we go.

'89, White Vanagon GL ("Sports Van")
Auto, A/C, Power steering, brakes and mirrors.
Manual locks, windows, throttle (no cruise).
Tinted windows. Full records. Nearly flawless body.
New Michelins.  Always garaged. 34750 miles  $9995

Took it to my VW-guru for a once-over.  Went through the service
records with him:
lots of A/C work ($250-hose)...
water pump at 12k miles (!?)...
alternator and battery...
whistling noise from passenger vent-window area (just like ours)...
new rear speakers...

Looked it over:
Small ding under body molding on right rear.
Oily leak on A/C compressor (doomed).
Two A/C diverters damaged.
Rear A/C condensor matted with dust/carpet fuzz.
Miserable non-standard Gates belt on alternator.
Coolant is low.

Various differences between '89 and '90 model.

He said "Offer them 9".

Called the previous owner (his number was on the service records :-).
He sold it because:
a) he rarely drove it,
b) his daughter was to inherit vehicle #4, and as #4 the Vanagon wasn't "cool"
   enough,
c) he lived 90 miles from the nearest dealer and it cost too much to have it
   towed in for service (I told him to upgrade his AAA to "Plus")(he evidently
   did no maintenance himself).

The dealer gave him $7000.  (According to the NADA book, he was screwed.
Loan value was around $8400.)

I'm bad at haggling.  We wound up trading in our Tercel (who's A/C had just
died), sight-unseen, for $900; got them to chop the price of the VWoA
one-year everything-warranty and ended up at about $10.3k (w/TTL).  Every
warranty policy we've ever bought has more than payed for itself.  If the
A/C can be coerced to die in the next 12 months, this one will too; and
it's going to see constant use.

We didn't have the Toyota with us, but they let us drive our prize home
without even signing anything, with the promise that we'd finish up on
Monday.

Wheeee!
We're all-VW now.

bcnu - Grungy
jgladu@bcm.tmc.edu
'61 dddPanel walk-thru
'89 Vanagon GL
'90 Vanagon GL
'68 & '69 Bugs