Date:         Tue, 19 Sep 1995 08:37:37 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <des@teleport.com>
Subject:      Re: My Syncro Obsession Sated?

Steve Hoge writes:
> 
> Although it looks great, as soon as I climbed underneath I was nearly hit in
> the face by a big fat drop of coolant dripping from the rear skid plate, and
> the reservoir was below MIN.  I felt some uneveness in the acceleration and
> they claimed that although they've experienced the infamous intermittent FI
> cutout problem, it hasn't shown up for along time.  The idle is terribly
> uneven but they also claim it's been that way from day one, that the dealer
> tried and failed to cure it, and that it hasn't led to anything worse.  

DANGER!  DANGER!  DANGER!

Sounds like expensive problems waiting to happen!  An 87 synchro
non-camper with problems like that wouldn't be worth more than about 3K
to *me*.  I think 10K is outrageous!

> My guys here at the Volks Cafe are going to give it the fine-tooth-comb
> treatment, but I thought I'd solicit input from the greater community of
> experts in the group.  Does this sound like a reasonable deal?  The owners
> said they specifically chose high Blue Book because of the low mileage/hi
> cosmetics, but the price still seemed high to me, especially after looking in
> other used-car price guides (Edmunds on-line and N.A.D.A Mt. States edition). 
>  And unquestionably, the price is out-of-whack if I'm looking at a head gasket
> replacement,  not to mention the heinous, dreaded "ghost harness" (ooh - gives
> me shivvers just thinking about it).  I'm also wondering if there should be a
> price hit for the lack of A/C and pullout bed?

Yes to all of the above.

> So, am I blowing it if I pay over $10K for a car like this?  All my rational
> senses are screaming "Toyota LE", but some more primal urge (is it
> testosterone-based?) is whispering "a VW van with 4WD? TOO COOL, dude". 
> Whaddaya think?

I think you should look at a few more synchros!

-David

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David Schwarze                     '73 VW Safare Custom Camper  (Da Boat)
San Diego  (Actually La Mesa)      '72 VW Westfalia Camper      (Da Project)
California, USA                    '73 Capri GT 2800            (Da Beast)
e-mail: des@teleport.com           '87 Mustang Lx 5.0           (14.17@99.34)
http://www.teleport.com/~des       '93 Weber WG-50              (Da Piano)
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