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Date:         Sat, 21 Nov 1998 00:03:57 -0500
Reply-To:     Mark Rokus <marokus@VOYAGER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Rokus <marokus@VOYAGER.NET>
Subject:      New family member
Comments: To: Vanagon newsgroup <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi all

In the past we have seen discussion concerning the fact that most of the messages are complaints about broken Vanagons. In the spirit of ballancing this a bit, here is a note to say that these machines are not all bad. About a month ago I was fortunate enough to find a '87 SyncroWesty in my own area. I had been told that there was a van for sale locally by co-workers but kind of blew it off as I had just purchased another '87 Syncro for my wife a few months earlier. (some may remember the 17 hour trip from Michigan to PA just to get it. Thank you Karl Bloss for putting it on your website). I had driven by it but didn't have the time to look at it. I eventually got around to going to see it. It was parked off the sholder of the road low enough that it was not obvious that it was a Syncro and a bra hid the emblem on the front. When I realized what it was, I started looking closer. I was pleased. GL with full amenities. Electric windows, locks, and mirrors. Exhaust good, no antifreeze leaks, fresh Michelins, perfect interior, and very little seam rust. Hmmmm, this has to be a dream.... The one distractor... 250,000 miles! Found the person who had owned it for the past year, only the second owner. Seems the original owner was a doctors wife and had meticulously maintained it. Had all the service records. Other than heads @ 100,000 it had all been normal wear and tear. Called the primary mechanic in WI and found that they had never had the engine apart. Well, I couldn't stand it, offered $6500 because of a slight tranny whine and she said "sold". After having put a couple of thousand miles on it I have to say it was a good deal. I'm pleased. When I asked the owner if she had ever used the fridge she said that she never even tried so I figured I might have some problems there. Went to fill the propane tank and found that it was still FULL from the original owner. Wow... The fridge even makes ICE. I have had to fix some little stuff like the dome light, one of the locks, and a seatbelt latch but other than that, it runs like a top. Eventually I will dig into the tranny and fix the diff lock when I rebuild it. Until then, I'm just going to enjoy the new member of our family.... BTW, I did manage to sell our original Vanagon ('84 GL) for $2000 the other day. Not bad for a 200K vehicle. Now if I can just find the time to finish rebuilding the air cooled 2L in my '81 westy so that I can offer it a to a new home, I can be back down to 2 Vanagons... Waiting for Snow so I can try the Syncros in Northern Michigan Mark Rokus


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