Carfax - Not Actual Mileage, concern?

[JN99]

[DAIZEE]

Yes I am very aware that my situation was not the norm, I use it to teach lessons, that all is not always what they seem. No more, no less. Word is one thing, documentation is a wee bit more valuable than word. So if nobody has anything more to say, I will leave this discussion, I've had my say and can add no more. I did have a stock 84 Westy also.
_________________
'09 2.5L Jetta 5 cylinder, 5 spd, super turbo, see thread in H2O Cooled Jetta, etc...
83.5 Vanagon L Riviera Model with 98 1.9L TD AAZ 4 speed Daily Driver 3 out of 4 seasons (sold)
84 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg Westy WBX 4 speed (sold)

[hiram6]

For a 20 something year old vehicle I think CarFax is just short of useless. Take my van as an example. I think it's a fairly nice example of a 1985 GL camper. No rust, runs nicely, lots of upgrades. Here's the rub, run a Carfax on it, and I have no idea what the mileage would say. I know the odometer is not correct, because I CHOSE for it to not be right. When I bought it, I was told the body had 150K plus on it, but the seller had just transplanted the engine and automatic transmission into it from lower mileage wrecked van. I saw the wrecked van, and confirmed his claim that the van had 88K. So, since the odometer in my van was busted, when I did the odometer repair, I set it to reflect the mileage on the DRIVETRAIN , not the VAN. So I'm sure my Carfax would come up wacky. Still a darn nice van, no matter what the odometer says.

My point is, condition is so much more important than mileage.
_________________
1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

[JN99]

This is a neighboring state vehicle so it's not as easy as trying to gather info on a local vehicle. I did have a volunteer preview the van for me and he said it looked good and he felt it was priced right.

I believe it's a good Westy so unless something terribly untoward shows up in an audit of the maintenance records or the compression/leakdown numbers come back poor it will be my Westy

[JPrato]

Carfax mileage can get screwed up fairly easily. Last year we got my mom's 2003 Accord with 16k on it. As you can see she didn't drive it much in the 7 years she had it. We registered/titled it last November with that mileage in NY. When I ran a car fax report a few weeks ago there was an "inspection" done by some company reporting 68k miles right before we got it. That inspection was not done, I don't know where it came from. Luckily I had a NYS title with 16,057 miles dated three weeks AFTER the supposed "68k inspection" that I faxed a copy of to Carfax. I asked them to remove the bad inspection record and used the title of proof that is was false. The title event that I faxed them a copy of, shows up on their report but with no mileage.

I would take any Carfax report with a grain of salt.
_________________
Joe

87 Syncro Tin Top project
84 Westy, 2.5L Subaru power
06 Subaru 2.5 turbo in waiting
46 Cessna 140

[BillWYellowstone]

My MT titled van I registered in FL, mileage was clearly stated, my new title reads exempt.

Like others have said, CarFax is a guide as others have said. Can alert you to something or just be wrong.
_________________
Live Fulltime in motorhome
Have 86 Westy Camper 2.1 rebuilt
Work in Yellowstone NP year round.

[JN99]

Well the compression numbers came back pretty goood 142-147 across all 4 cylinders. The mileage history, not so much. An audit of maintenance records shows it to be all over the place:

2/11/1994 - 40,203
5/24/1994 - 24,973
7/12/1994 - 42,448
2/23/1995 - 53,810
5/23/1995 - 61,237
11/28/1995 - 49,259
11/24/1998 - 78,878
9/9/2000 - 40,865
9/5/2007 - 91,029
4/22/2008 - 91,074

So who knows what the mileage really is or why it jumps around so much on the invoices? It still seems like a good, clean van at a decent price. No rust, good engine, unknown mileage. Price is $12k. Mechanic says it's clean and mechanically very good - I even asked what he recommended be done and he said there really isn't anything. The mileage thing bugs me because its' such an unknown but I guess it's not as important as I'm thinking it is and to some extent unknown on most if not all of these vans anyway.

[dubbified]

for 12, I would pass.

I paid 8, no questions for my 130K multivan.

You're in WA, open Seattle.craigslist.org, search under cars, Vanagon.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/2608176358.html

a SYNCRO for 4k.

a 86 westy weekender, 6200... http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/2597722140.html


A great search I've been using alot,

http://www.weidefamily.net/partsearch/

[JN99]

Unfortunately, we can't fit a syncro in the garage and if you check that ad now you'll see how many folks have already hit up that seller. It ain't selling for 4k. Heck, we couldn't even get a look in on an `86 that needed body work for $9k in Kirland - sold that quickly.

We want a full camper so are not looking at the weekenders, which defintely seem to go for less. From everything we have seen in our search the past 5-6 weeks, this van at 12K seems reasonable. Is it a killer deal? Probably not but I think it's reasonable.

[DAIZEE]

You will do what you will do. You 'seem' to be set on this one and perhaps you are waiting for someone to tell you to buy it. You are in an aarea where the Vanagon population is fairly dense. You have way more choices than many others. Alas nobody but you can make this decision.
_________________
'09 2.5L Jetta 5 cylinder, 5 spd, super turbo, see thread in H2O Cooled Jetta, etc...
83.5 Vanagon L Riviera Model with 98 1.9L TD AAZ 4 speed Daily Driver 3 out of 4 seasons (sold)
84 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg Westy WBX 4 speed (sold)

[JN99]

[JeffRobenolt]

My 2 cents, the 100k entry was bogus, just someone to lazy to walk out and check what the the real mileage was.
_________________
--------------------------------------------------------

[davevickery]

You have a good record of mileage and if you were familiar with which records get messed up and which ones normally don't you can guesstimate what happened.

An occassional outlier like the 24K is probably a typo, maybe it was 42K. The owner who reported 100K was probably told what the approximate miles were from the prior seller and said it 100K at that time. States usually do not make mistakes titling vehicles, so it probably was an odometer switch before 1994. That was a long time ago when the van was fairly new so it didn't have as many years to to rack up unrecorded miles. Many people don't fix a broken speedo for a while.

Your maintenace records since are pretty consistent, but the starting point is unknown. I would assume it has 40K or so miles more on it than on the odometer, worst case. But engine sounds strong with those compression numbers.

12K is a good price for a super clean hyper maintained full Westy. Good westies don't come cheap. But at 12K you have a lot choices if you can wait for them to come up. A 90 or 91 is better than an 87, just a little bit newer and a couple minor improvements. And for $15K you are pretty much near the top of the range and can get a very nice stock van.

You should not expect to find a very clean full westy (87-91 years) from the west coast for under 10K. If you spend your life looking, maybe, like some of the people on this list do. Still, you shouldn't feel pushy for saying you can only go to 11K with branded title and potentially higher miles. That's the last 2 cents in my pocket. Good luck whatever you do.

[randywebb]

what really counts is a careful PPI by a mechanic experienced with Vanagons, not just with newer VWs
_________________
1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans.

[JN99]

Well the deal is essentially on hold right now pending a closer look at the records and strange fluctuation of the mileage on various invoices as listed above.

While by all accounts the van is mechanically sound and in very good shape inside and out with no rust, and a stong motor I am hesitant to proceed without taking a closer look at the invoices to see what's been done when and if any of the mileage anomalies are clearly typos, etc. I know the van does not have the 92k miles shown on the odometer and never will know what it really does have but am hoping to have a better idea from a closer review of the records. Ball is in seller's court now to provide that.

Again, thanks for all the input and feedback - this is a great forum with great people.

[MarkWard]

I just came across this thread. Bottom line any 20 to 30 year old vehicle will need to have everything replaced or rebuilt at some point. My 82 drives like a new car now, that was not the case when I bought it. I don't keep a documented history of what I have done either, nor do I plan to sell it. In Florida, anything over 100K is considered exempt and I am on my second speedo head.

I would not sweat the mileage. I would be more concerned about buying a used vehicle that had been wrecked, in a flood, or tornado. If you like the van, and you have the money, go ahead and buy it. From your posts, if you pass on this one, you will agonize over the next one just as much.

You say it has good bones. Buy it.
_________________
☮️

[MURRAYMW1]

I bought an 85 Westy in June for $6k with absolutely NO RECORDS. I assumed the mileage was wrong and assumed the PO was not exactly honest. The car was filthy, pained with a home sprayer, and had things like a bumper from some mid 80's Ford. I also assumed I would be spending lots of money, just didn't know how quickly.

The car got me from LA to PDX and then blew 3 weeks later - gave me the excuse for an immediate purchase of a GoWesty engine. So, I knew I was in for trouble, bought the Westy any way, have sunk $10k into it since June, took it on a 3,000 mile adventure and ... would do it all over again.

That stated the $12k figure seems too high.
_________________
Mark
85 Westy - current
Past - 85 weekender; 72 camper, 65 van; many bugs 54 - 72

[stevey88]

My 2 cents here. Once the AZ title stated there is a mileage discrepancy, all subsequent transfer will have that problem. The compressions are good but you should check the oil pressure after driving a minimum of 30 minutes on the freeway to see if it still hold 40psi or so at 3K to 4K rpm. Even if the mileage of the engine is true, you still need to plan on a head reseal in 30-40K miles that will cost $1.5K if you don't do it yourself. A rebuilt gearbox will cost $1.5K installed so your total bill will be $12K + $1.5K + 1.5K = 15K and you will end up with a van that can run at least another 80K-100K miles before an engine rebuild is needed. If the interior is good, I would say get it.
I paid $6K for mine ( 260K miles on the odo, original engine with AMC heads ) that come with one seam rust, and three rust holes on the side windows plus completely rusted lower windshield lip. So far I spend over $6K on parts plus my free labor and the Westy looks like a new van now if you don't pop the top. I did not change the canvas as it is not bad enough to need a new one. I am very happy with my investment and will do a engine rebuild in the next few months to get a few more HP.
_________________
Steve

87 Westfalia full camper 4 speed

[JN99]

Everything has checked out and we are getting our first Westy tomorrow! Driving her back to her new home with a sleep over (of course we could do the trip in one day but why would we???) near the Columbia River on the way

[MarkWard]

Enjoy.
_________________
☮️