Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 17:49:30 -0700
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Matthew L. Dekker" <mdekker@eskimo.com>
Subject: Still Looking, EV this time
Hello everyone,
A couple of weeks ago, I started a thread about a red and white bus next
door to my sister in law's house. Turns out that for what the owner wanted
for a '76 bus with the engine not installed, I can cover the difference in
value between my Golf III GL and a Eurovan GL that I found at a local auto
broker's.
The details:
'93 EV GL, 5 spd manual, front & rear AC, ABS, miles: 71,000. Asking just
under $11,000. It originally came from Southern California.
This van does NOT have the convenience package of cruise control, power
locks & power windows.
Since the van was blocked in by a half dozen other cars, I did not have the
opportunity to drive it. I was able to run the engine which sounded ok and
the exhaust and muffler looked ok. There was no damage at the jack points.
I ran the AC which I thought was broken until I figured out the controls,
the tires looked relatively new, but had different no-name brand pairs
front vs. rear. The spare tire was worn on one side, could have been out of
balance, or is this how tires wear with so much weight on the front end?
No sign of the cracked paint at the A and B pillars. The windshield did
have a crack about a foot long running from the top left roofline to the A
pillar. Has anyone ever had to replace a windshield on an EV? How much
might this cost? A minor cosmetic blem on the rear bumper was the only
other apparent flaw, where someone backed into something.
Since this EV has 71,000 miles, I am a bit aprehensive that annoying things
will start creeping up like the timing belt, struts, clutch, etc. (All of
the above happened when I took over a '80 diesel Rabbit from my dad at
75,000 miles.) Any hints or suggestions from the EV crowd about what else
to look for? Or should I save my money and continue to look for one with
less miles? A similar EV with only 42,000 miles at a local dealer is listed
at $16,000.
Should I decide to go for this one, is that totaled EV still up in Alaska?
And a question for our European Caravelle owners: some time ago I noticed
an aftermarket computer chip advertised in a British car magazine for the
Caravelle (EV) to increase the stock 109 hp to 130 hp. Has anyone ever had
any experience with this? Maybe with a new chip and a Projekt Zwo sport
exhaust, it might not be too slow off the line....
Thanks in advance for all your help (and patience),
Matt Dekker
mdekker@eskimo.com
|