Welcome to the vanagon world, Rob.
Opinion:
You have a gem there. the one-owner where you will likely get the entire
paperwork history and verbal reports is VERRRRRy rare. If you like, find a
local "guru", spend the $$ to have him/her give it the once over and use
that info to make a decision. If it were me, and it's not, I'd buy it
because from your description you will have NO trouble getting your $$ back
out of it. Sounds like a good investment and good van.
There are others here much smarter and wiser than I that can give you the
low down on exactly what to look for, but here's a link to help:
http://www.vanagon.com/  , then click on "Info", then on "Ariticles &
Essays", then "Purchasing a van". Good start if you haven't looked there
yet.
Best of adventures to you.

Bob Stevens
'87 Westy Syncro
http://groups.msn.com/BobsPhotoShare
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tiico
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Robbie Cotner" <robw_z@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 12:55 PM
Subject: Looking at buying a Westy, some questions.

> Hey all, this is my first post.
> I've been dreaming of owning a Westy for about 4 years now, being in
> college my funds are short and the few that have come up for sale near me
> have been too much.  Now I have found one locally that I am very
> interested in, it has been sitting in the owners driveway for several
> years now and I finally asked about if they would sell it, after two
> months of deliberation they said yes.
> It is an '85 Westfalia full camper, they've owned it since new.  The
> odomoter shows 103,000 miles but it has been broken for several years,
> from talking with them I'm going to assume it has 110,000 miles.  The rear
> bumper is pushed in, and it's been lightly sideswiped on the sliding door
> and on the drivers side, also has been lightly cornered in the
> drivers-rear.  It has no rust though, and the paint is good.  The interior
> is immaculate except all the rubber trim-piping has shrunk and bunched up
> in places.  The van has no known problems from driving it, they seem to
> have maintained it well.
> What has me really worried is ofcourse headgasket problems, as this has
> the 1.9L-  they say it has never had any major repair done in it's 110k
> mile history; this both comforts me in knowing it hasn't needed a head-job
> yet and worries me in that it could need one very very soon!  What are
> some good ways to diagnose cooling problems?  The coolant was full, but
> the coolant light flashes in the dash all the time for no known reason.
> As for the price, they want full blue-book according to KBB.com; $2500.
> Seems like an alright price to me should it have no problems?  Thanks for
> any info anybody can give on what to look for when buying a Westy and the
> head-gasket problems!
> -Rob
>
>
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