Funny you should talk about the new price on your 85!!  Today, while cleaning out some old, old stuff in the garage, I came across the original invoice for our 85 Vanagon GL with the fold down bed in back.  Ours wasn't an automatic, but it did have everything else, including air conditioning (which never worked)  - $13,495 in San Jose, CA.  That was a LOT of money then for ANY car.  We just got rid of it last year (donated) and it had about 200,000 miles on it.

Sharon Mendonca
88 Vanagon GL
88 Westy