Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 16:53:48 -0700
Reply-To: "Penberthy, Thomas" <TPenberthy@CREATIVEPRO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Penberthy, Thomas" <TPenberthy@CREATIVEPRO.COM>
Subject: To buy or not to buy...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I used to own a '81 Westy named Steve. I bought him for $4200 in Eugene, OR
in 1990, drove him 40k miles, rebuilt the engine, replaced the starter
(twice), the alternator, the clutch, the brakes, and countless tail lights.
In 1996, I returned Steve to Eugene, hung a For Sale sign on him, and was
paid $4200 for the keys.
There were things I loved about driving Steve. Tired? Pull over, pop the
top, take a nap. Hungry? Send the passenger to the back to whip up a snack!
Need to haul a load of rocks, some plywood, a whole bunch of really tall
plants, and some 10' fence posts? No problem!
There were things I hated about driving Steve. That time when the starter
went out in Fort Rock, Oregon when I was 1/2 way up a windy, rutted dirt
road in the middle of absolute nowhere (I had to pop start it in reverse
backing down said road). The time when the alternator failed in slow-mo 3/4
of the way to Friday Harbor, WA at 11:30 at night while moving all of my
friend Kirk's stuff to his new home (slept in van crammed between boxes,
unstrapped bike from roof, rode to Napa, bought new brushes, replaced).
Being stopped twice the week I was in Canada for tail light outage (same
tail light - I replaced it immediately after each stop).
But now.
Now I'm 31. I have a partner. We have a dog. We have a Zodiac boat with
outboard. We like to travel. We like to eat and drink and sleep while
travelling. My Honda Civic station wagon (never broken down in 250k miles,
not even once) is inches from being too small for all of our crap.
Yesterday I heard about an 86 camper Synchro with all options for sale.
It CALLS to me.
Here are my questions, to which I'd like some objective answers.
1. Is there a chance that an 86 vanagon with 120k miles (engine done at 80k)
will be more reliable than my last one?
2. If I don't want to endlessly tinker with my car, if I just want it to
*work*, is this the right car for me?
I know that by posting this entreaty to the vanagon list that there's a
degree of bias built in, but I figure you folks don't want a vanagon to go
to the wrong home, right?
Thanks in advance.
Tom
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