So many Vanagons, Westy's for sale locally

[cmayna]

I just happen to be surfing our local Craigslist of the San Francisco Bay Area and counted 15+ as being available. Is this typical for the fall when most are done camping for the season? For me, the fall (when the local kids are back in school) is our favorite time to camp.
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'90 Westy / automatic.
If I'm not working on the camper or my '50 Chebbie truck, I'm either fishing with the wife or smoking Salmon.


Craig

[skills@eurocarsplus]

if you haven't noticed, people are really having a hard time paying for basic stuff these days.

These things are a luxury to many, so it makes sense that it would be one of the first things to get the ax when trying to trim fat from the budget.

This is kind of along the same lines as this thread:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=203877

basically, it's a buyers market...IF you can find a buyer.
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[DLJ]

Not sure I agree. Seems like the vans that are not selling are the stick shifts.
Maybe the younger buyers don't know how to shift.

[markswagen]

there's 10 here in san diego today, ranging from $5k to $54k
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markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

[Silverghost500]

I use Bring A Trailer as a gauge of volume of vans, prices, sold and big. It's not a big picture metric, but gives an idea. I've not seen that many Vanagons listed there in the past couple of months.

A trend I'm seeing is tin top Vanagons being bought. Spoke to multiple people at the Caffeine & Octane show yesterday that said they'd recently bought tin top Vanagons.
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1986 Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia "Von Westy"
Honda K24A conversion
3-Speed Automatic

Von Westy YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbhyZYxJEQrUuLnMbLleeIA

[vanis13]

[E1]

I fear our beloved genre is visibly dying, unless an owner happens to live in a hotbed town of enthusiasts and shops — or is themselves an able mechanic with a stocked garage.

What we’ve personally heard probably 100 times are comments by regretful former owners in selling because of endless mechanical expenses. Some have been outwardly emotional in describing the day they sold, the happy times they had, and that they made the wrong decision in retrospect.

The difference between Then and Now is support, and respect of customer funds. While it’s understandable that many shops have closed up for aging out, what’s not understandable is the attitude of many entitled or downright marginal vendors we rely on to keep going. Inexcusable when “we” built “them,” to often no appreciation of that fact whatsoever.

So far as Skills above being slighted for his supposed politics, every region and its owners could massively benefit by having such a mechanic giving a damn in their neck of the woods.

We should all be so lucky — and I couldn’t care less about such views in light of us all driving the same rigs. Our genre has no chance without each other.
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1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

[E1]

Deleted by user, it answered a deleted post.
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1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

[vanagonjr]

[E1]

Think you’re right about Fall selling… though interestingly, nearly everyone knows Spring is when to sell a car.

But maybe, Haha, Fall is better for Vanagons to have eight months to work on it.

Lest we forget that much of the populus *never* go out to eat, and can barely buy groceries. So not sure restaurant seats are a fair benchmark of economic realities.
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1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

[Shonandb]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[E1]

We really and disappointedly saw this last Fall in the Southeast.

All the local and authentic restaurants were boarded up — and at great risk of “snowflaking” as per an above post (for actually giving a damn and not being on happy pills), it was heartbreaking.

I asked dozens of locals about this over our month there, turns out mostly the corporate places survived and the Mom and Pops couldn’t. So we cooked our own greens.

Spectacular times for corporate greed thanks to the selfish idiots who helped them thrive, not so much for the dying Mom and Pops we personally supported all along.

Once every little town is littered with soulless chains and crappy, toxic “food,” it’ll be way too late — if it isn’t already.
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1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

[ALIKA T3]

Without going into politics, I have to agree with Skills here that the economics is a deciding factor for unloading these bricks at a faster rate than say last year...

I have never seen that many Vanagons for sale in Hawai'i since late 2008, at very interesting prices too! It definitely is a buyer's market.

I foster dogs with my wife that we place ourselves to families.
The shelters are overflowing with dogs. You couldn't find a rag dog to adopt during Covid: people had more time than money.
Surrenders are through the roof, abandoned dogs, dogs that are very adoptable are not even picked up.
That's a sign of the economy, this and the increase in sales of Spam (yuk).
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Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[E1]

Alika, if those shelters take donations, we’re in, just let me know.
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1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

[skemems]

[E1]

[trihartsfield]

Anyone who thinks that there are not a large group of people out there significantly struggling is either, one of those who think it is ok to pay 60 to 70 percent taxes because they have enough money it won’t effect them, they are watching the MSM or is still wearing a mask and have locked themselves up inside because they think Covid is still killing everyone who gets it.

30-40 year old vans are not cheap to work on, (especially if you can not do the work yourself), and typically are not as reliable as modern vehicles.

In less than 30 days we will find out if things improve or worsen, and then we see either an increase or decrease in availability of these vans.

This forum has all of the above.
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1971 Transporter-SOLD
1982 Westy Will grow up into a TDI

[kamzcab86]

$1 trillion in credit card debt, all-time high
30% of car owners underwater on loans
Car repos are up 23%
3% of homeowners "seriously underwater"
Cost of living still sky-high
Cost to drive and camp still high
Cost to repair vehicles is high
Businesses going bankrupt at an alarming rate (both "mom & pop" and corporate)

All of the above and more = lousy economy out in the real, middle-class world = dump personal expenditures you don't need to get money to pay for things you do need, in addition to the seasonal norms
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~Kamz
1986 Cabriolet: www.Cabby-Info.com
1990 Vanagon Westfalia: Old Blue's Blog
2016 Golf GTI S
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - 孔子

[EverettB]

Moderator time:
Let's stay away from personal insults.

Also politics.

Some posts were cleaned up.
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