When I bought my 88 GL  the price was $3500. Had 86,000 miles on it,
A/C, Power Steering, Rear seat folded into a bed, middle bench seat. No
radio. Very clean. Ran very good.  900 miles later the tranny went, and
had to be rebuilt. In eleven months, engine burned a piston and required
that the engine be rebuilt. In the process I discovered that the engine
at 86,000 miles was the second engine, not the original engine, and it
was a VW of Canada Remanufactured engine at that. My rebuild was to be
the 3rd engine in that 86,000 miles plus the 11 months I owned it.

So you never know.

At this point, and prol'ly in the case of many vanagons, and not always
obvious, the PO will have let things go, and you will pick up the tab
for getting everything back up to speed. I have the rebuilt engine
 which now runs great and has 40,000 trouble free miles on it, the
rebuilt tranny, rebuilt brakes, replaced brake master cyl., replaced
clutch master, replaced speedometer with brand new one, replaced exhaust
system including new cat, muffler, O2 sensor, replaced expansion tank
reservoir,  replaced all the headlight adjustors. Replaced all CV's,

Need doing now, replace power steering rack, and possibly the power
steering pump.

As I did not replace the clutch slave when the clutch master was
replaced, I expect it to fail at any time, though there is no evidence
of impending failure. No wetness or leaks at this time. I am fortunate
that I have no rust in this vehicle.

This machine is my daily driver, and I intend to drive it for a very
long time, so good maintenance is very important to me. I want no sudden
surprise or breakdowns at inconventient places. So far so good.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

At this point the really big stuff has been taken care of, and I expect
to continue to drive without significant problems

Jennifer Ravary wrote:

>Hi all -
>What is a reasonable price to pay for a Gold Vanagon GL 1987 109,000 miles.
>AC works, power locks do not. Cloth seats, pretty good shape.
>Two owners, both known to me.
>It is running well and there is only a bit of rust on the passenger side
>where the panels fit together (2 places).
>Is that indication of a more serious problem ?
>
>Thanks,
>Jennifer
>
>
>