Fair price?

[uncommonvw]

It looks good in the pictures....but what about up close?

Sure, he says he'll fix it....why hasn't he? Just too busy? Fed up? Moved on from Vanagon love affair?

The engine notwithstanding....does he have receipts for all the stuff he said has been replaced?

4 tires? $500
Brakes all around? $500
Carat springs? $150
Exhaust- $500
Thule bars and basket- $300
Audio system- $300

Those prices are a guess but that's easily 1/2 the asking price of the Van. So long as the rest of the Van checks out I'd offer $2000. You're planning an engine conversion anyway aren't you? Even if the transmission is garbage a good used one is $500.

like danfromsyr said....rust free in the NE USA is going to command a premium. Go with cash in your hand and with a truck/trailer and show him you're ready to take it. Another option is to tell him what you'd be willing to pay if he fixed it.

I wouldn't walk away just yet. I've seen worse looking Vans for more money.

[uncommonvw]

It looks good in the pictures....but what about up close?

Sure, he says he'll fix it....why hasn't he? Just too busy? Fed up? Moved on from Vanagon love affair?

The engine notwithstanding....does he have receipts for all the stuff he said has been replaced?

4 tires? $500
Brakes all around? $500
Carat springs? $150
Exhaust- $500
Thule bars and basket- $300
Audio system- $300

Those prices are a guess but that's easily 1/2 the asking price of the Van. So long as the rest of the Van checks out I'd offer $2000. You're planning an engine conversion anyway aren't you? Even if the transmission is garbage a good used one is $500.

like danfromsyr said....rust free in the NE USA is going to command a premium. Go with cash in your hand and with a truck/trailer and show him you're ready to take it. Another option is to tell him what you'd be willing to pay if he fixed it.

I wouldn't walk away just yet. I've seen worse looking Vans for more money.

[greebly]

General maintenance is not additive for dollar value. This is where most sellers go off the reservation trying to calculate what they put in to it recently as adding inherent value. When buying a vehicle one expects the brake to work, if they do not you deduct value. They expect the engine to work, if it does not, deduct some money. A new exhaust means little if the engine does not run. I agree that money and work into a vehicle can add value, but only if you have gone the distance, done the full monty and the buyer can drive off in it. The less a prior owner has done is better to me as I trust my work. I have seen some really questionable stuff done by previous owners depicted here. .

[intro]

Up close, it's not as great as in the photos, but still good.

Clear coat peeling in one spot, bad Bondo repair down by the rear quarter panel,
rust forming around tailgate, a little at the windshield, cracked bumper endcap in front, cracked grille with 3 small holes.

I'm hoping he'll reconsider my offer and maybe meet me halfway. His posted price is just too high in my opinion. I dunno. I'm thinking about it.

I didn't ask about the receipts, but it seemed like there was a lot of unfinished work to do (which I'm ok with if it drives the price down). When I asked if the fuel lines had ever been changed he produced a box with said items and said he had never gotten around to it.

And yeah, as Greebly is saying, all these items just seem like a way to put "lipstick on a pig" as they say, all of that should be working on a vehicle you are selling anyway. As far as I'm concerned, keep the giant yakima rack
and sell that separately on your own, it has no bearing on the price I should pay for the vehicle. My understanding is rule 1 when selling a used car is new rubber.

[danfromsyr]

I do often say

[danfromsyr]

compare it to this ad.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1945751

which is a avg market price for a decent van with issues that does run but needs service/repair.
_________________

[porky79]

[Wasted youth]

When I was in the service, I bought a 1970 Ford truck for a good price... it ran like crap. Previous owner told me it overheated. It took me a lot of time to finally figure out all the hydraulic lifter valves had varnished stuck from the severely overheated oil. Because I had only a rudimentary knowledge of mechanics at that age, I really spent a lot of time and money throwing engine management parts at it before understanding about the lifters. Then I had no time or money left to repair the extremely loose front end.

I wound up selling it to the base auto shop manager for more than $1000 less than what I had in it... I was not able to drive my truck home when I transferred. I did not see most of mid-America from Chicago to Los Angeles on leave as a result of this blunder.

You say you're on a budget, and you also say you're planning a re-engine. Which is it, then? A re-engine is a huge expense.

Walk a away from this. There are too many red flags that have popped up in the three pages of this thread. It is complete bullshit that he didn't at least put some water in the cooling system to help you with the test drive. Obviously, he does not want you to see the whole picture. F**k that guy.

What else is he hiding?

[danfromsyr]

clean rust free (purportedly) and runs $5900.

http://vermont.craigslist.org/cto/5648717973.html

[intro]

With a 6 cylinder engine.

[uncommonvw]

[intro]

I've realized maybe I was being too cheap. We're still talking but I may have missed the boat. He has a couple of people coming to see it today.

I am willing to get my hands dirty. Looking around now I guess I just thought the market for regular 7 passenger tin-tops was a little different than the present reality. Maybe I should keep my search to the winter months.

Re: the cost of upgrading the motor, I see it as potentially spending $300 for new gaskets, or $1100 for new WBX heads, or around $1500-$2000 for the inline 4 I would like, so it's not either/or for me, just the cheaper I can get a Van with potential problems the better. The last two Vanagons I had been interested in had messed up transmissions, and here I can't even check if it stays in gear.

[intro]

Well, lesson learned. Shouldn't have slept on the $2K offer, and taken it on the spot. By the time I worked up from $1000 to $1500 and then $2K he had a bunch of others lined up. He was cool enough to call me just now and told me there was a mechanic there offering $2500 to give me a shot at it. I declined.

So where are those California $500 Vanagons at?

[greebly]

Why would he call you if he had someone offer more than you? It is skeezy and several here have mentioned this guy is bogus in how he is dealing. Never get invested in buying a vehicle. You will be taken advantage of.

[intro]

Absolutely.

[intro]

Ok, so this is pretty interesting.

Much like Roz from Monsters Inc., I'm always watching Craigslist, just in case I happen to see a Vanagon that finally fits the bill for my son and I.

It's now 2 years later and I come across a tin-top van for 3K. Appears to look very much like the original vehicle in this thread -Same color, wheels, Yakima basket, Thule bars. The difference is it now has truck mirrors and a ladder on the side to get up to the basket. Other differences: there is no longer a grille, the interior has been pulled and replaced by a wood floor and a folding rear seat out of an older Westfalia, and the sliding door does not seem to be functioning very well.

When I get there to look at it I start thinking, this has to be the same van so I ask the seller if he was the one who picked it up in such and such place from so and so. He tells me his friend was the one who owned it and then he ended up with it, had plans to convert it to a camper and then stopped. He says he only drove it for 2 weeks, and it was parked 4 months ago.

Because the van still has the very same issue with the overheating and the coolant, I had to press him for more info. Running the Vin produced no sale or title information on the free vin checks online, and he, unfortunately, did not have a title, but still has it registered. We poked in the glove box and he was surprised to find some documentation with the so and so I mentioned earlier's name on it. Lo and behold-The very same van.

It still can't be test driven, the battery is dead. Rust has been addressed in a couple of spots, and there is a tiny rust spot under the rubber seal on the rear windshield that will involve removing the glass to get to it. The underside has been coated since I last saw it, but I didn't notice any soft spots pressing down. It is pretty rust free.

My plan remains the same, to put an ABA with a crossflow head in it. Hopefully, I can still track down all the diesel components but I'm ok with taking a year to make this happen. I have enough other projects at the moment. We've settled at $2500, which is exactly what was being asked for it the last time I passed on it. The difference is money is a bit better now and I have a couple of more years experience wrenching (mk4: 1st clutch job, full suspension refresh. V6 Passat: Valve cover gasket job & cam seals, timing belt) so I feel more comfortable tackling this.

The seller seems like a good kid. He took the ad down and is working with me on a time to come back with the money and set up a tow with AAA (Sunday and a holiday today made it hard to get the full amount at the ATM) . He's also letting me borrow his plates so I don't have to register it first. AAA can be tricky with the free tows.

The only odd thing I would say is that he really seems to be acting like he doesn't know much about the van apart from the camper style conversions he's done, but I got ahold of the seller I had been in negotiations with 2 years ago and he remembered giving the buyer a title and he also said it was a younger kid in a mk1 rabbit or cabriolet, which this kid happens to have. Is this a red flag? He made every effort to convince me that he was not the one that bought it before. I can't see why it would be important to not be truthful about that.

Any way. To me it's feeling like I'm getting a second chance here, I always regretted not picking it up, and I think my son did too. Perhaps I'm meant to find this van again.

Does anyone have any thoughts? This thread was super helpful for me before. I honestly don't see too many good vans go up at a reasonable price in the northeast. This seems like a good shell to start with.

Any nightmare regret scenarios I should watch out for? I'll take a flashlight with me this time and spend more time looking it over. I forgot to check for rust under the rug by the footwell and where the seatbelt bolts in.

Also, can anyone give me an idea how hard it is to find additional Westfalia or weekender interior pieces on their own? Is it a matter of finding a whole parts van?

Thanks folks!

[elizer]

I wonder what is under that new under coating. Let this one go. Where are you located?

[intro]

[campism]

DO NOT buy a motor vehicle without a title if you can't afford to lose your money, your time, your faith in humanity and a fight with the DMV.

Good luck.
_________________
'87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic

[Ahwahnee]