My 1984 Caravelle GL was brought over a few years ago from Australia by its
then owner (dunno how many Aussies owned it over in the land of Oz).

When I bought it, about Nov 1998, it already had the 3.8liter Holden VN
Commodore V6 (Holden is the Australian GM division, which sells
Holden-badged Opels and Isuzus and the Opel-derived Commodore), fitted by
the Kiwi owner i bought it from. The 094 5-speed had taller 4th & 5th gears
made locally; 4th was 0.88, 5th was 0.63; diff was stock 4.86.

Tidy and rust-free, it cost me $6500NZ ($2665US or thereabouts). A stock
1985 South African wasserboxer sold about that time for about $8500NZ and I
saw a well-used 1.6 diesel panelvan offered for $4000NZ about then also;
these are the only Vanagons I've seen for sale in NZ, all 3 in the North
Island. All were advertised in the NZ "Auto Trader" magazine.

The trans failed (mainshaft bearing and the two NZ-made gears all losing
hardening) in Feb 1999, and it's been sitting since. Hence my saving for
the SVX/G50 engine/trans swap. With all the electrics, engine, trans etc
I'm buying for it, it'll end up costing me much more than twice the
original purchase price, even taking the V6's selling price off this.

Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin, New Zealand
ph   64 (3) 473-8863
fax 64 (3) 479-7527
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
www.goingplatinum.com/member/vw1
www.highyieldcrusaders.ws/ref.html?ref=vw
VW & Toyota vans, Toyota diesels and Macintoshes rule