Date:         Tue, 21 Oct 1997 10:36:25 -0600
Reply-To:     Eric Small <Eric_Small@SABRE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From:         Eric Small <Eric_Small@SABRE.COM>
Subject:      Re: Advice: Got taken by DPO/ little VW content -Reply
Content-Type: text/plain

J wrote:
>Caveat emptor. The point is, we're talking about OLD vehicles. Old noisy
>vehicles. If the guy was as clueless as I am about the mechanical
>workings of these things, he probably had no idea that there was a
>problem; Don't assume the worst. And he may have been kinda deaf if he
>was REALLY old. :-)
>
>And if it makes you feel any better, my ex and I figured out that we
>probably had about $22,000 invested in the '85.

I concur with J. The Vanagon is in a peculiar class of vehicles like the VW
Beetle. It doesnt really matter how many miles are on the car when your looking
to buy it. Its the current state of things. Like death and taxes... as the owner
of a Vanagon -if you stick around- you must expect to replace the head gaskets,
rebuild the tranny, replace the heater cores, ECU, and on and on... If you are
not aware of this you will be soon! Nobody said these vans are cheap to operate.
In fact they can be down-right expensive.  To date it has cost me $.30 per mile
-including the $4k purchase price- to operate my '86 GL for 82K miles since I
bought it in FEB92 with 84195 miles on the clock. If you do the math that comes
$25040.87 -excluding lots of unaccounted for personal labor! That does include
the 5273.97 gallons of fuel I've burn to last fill up (yesterday).

I too got "burned" by the PO who put so much stop leak in the coolant to stop
the head gasket leak that it plugged up the radiator.  Having bought the van in
FEB it ran cool as long as it was cold out and I had the heaters on! When the
weather turned warm and the heater was turned off... well you can imagine the
rest.

Jeff, I think the bottom line for you is that you were aware of an odd noise but
allowed yourself to be talked out of your good judgement of the situation. At
this point I would get the van repaired and then really enjoy it. BTW... I had
my Tranny rebuilt by a Porsch/Audi specialty shop in Atlanta. A top notch job
for $1600. Maybe there is such an option in your area.

Eric Small
Dallas, TX
86 GL
93 Audi 100