That hippie chick can most definitely buy a Vanagon Westy for $1500.  Neil
just posted one for $1000. from Vancouver CraigsList a couple of days ago.
She just can't buy a low mileage 5 speed diesel Joker for that kind of
money.

It will be a piece of crap and need constant care and attention.  That's
simply not the same thing as the vans GoWesty is selling.

I bought my '84 at Campbell/Nelson in 1992 and it cost me $8200.00 CDN
landed. That was a lot of money for us then, but it has paid off.  I have
replaced the starter, tires, clutch, brakes, shocks and upper control arm
bushings in the 140,000 miles we've had it as our daily driver.

That's a good deal, as far as I'm concerned.

On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 11:11 AM, BJ Feddish <bfeddish@netreach.net> wrote:

> Sorry but things have just moved past me allot farther than I noticed.  It
> does not seem that long ago that I was in Craig's position (who wrote "so
> it
> turns out i like vanagons.....") out there on the weekend replacing one
> burnt engine with another used one. I did the exact same thing in college,
> I
> had to sell my car stereo to pay for a used beetle engine. I also had to
> go
> remove it myself in VA.  Fast forward to the 80's and I purchased a '72
> Helsinki Westfalia for $400 with a blown engine.  $1,500 later I was on
> the
> road.  In 1996 I got my present 1983 Westy as a daily driver. My mechanic
> had just rebuilt the engine, new paint, new coolant pipes, AC, etc. He
> charged me $3,500 plus I gave him my old engineless '84 GL.  I drove that
> van back in forth to work for years.  All in all the point of driving VW's
> were twofold, the first one was that they were cheap and second they have
> some magic power over you that for some people just cant shake.   I have
> hundreds of pictures from camping over the last 20 years and I don't see
> myself ever kicking the VW camper habit. I love this thing.  Probably
> about
> 7 years ago I was taking a route to a clients site that required lots of
> highway merges. The 1.9 could not handle it. I decided on a 3rd car at the
> time. I purchased a Subaru Legacy. I still drove the '83 around town and
> it
> has always been my pickup truck. What I really hadn't been noticing was
> the
> disappearance of all the VW vans around here. Back in '96 there were still
> plenty of Vanagons around here and even bay windows.  During that whole
> time
> my van has been, and still is, a partial daily driver and our camper.  Now
> it's probably 1 of 3 in my town.  I guess I have not been paying as much
> attention as I should. Nobody are driving these things to work anymore (OK
> a
> few), they are storing them in their garage and bringing them out for a
> camping trip.  Somewhere over the last 12 years it went from $3,500 for a
> new engine, paint, etc. to $25,000+ and I wasn't paying attention.
>
>
> I have no doubt that GoWesty sells a good van. I have also never heard a
> complaint from one of their customers.  It's just that I feel they charge
> way above and beyond the restoration cost of the vehicle. If it came time
> for me to buy a restored van or restore the one I have I would not have
> them
> do it. This is just a matter of opinion. I feel I can get the same quality
> job for les money somewhere else. I also find it humorous that they buy
> these vans super cheap and tell me it would not be in my best interest to
> just buy it from them as-is. They ALL "need" to be restored.  They also
> play
> the game where they "sell" you the van for say $5,000 then add the
> restoration costs later. The game here is to keep the buyer from paying
> sales tax on the completed vehicle. That can burn you down the road.
>  Sorry,
> I can't jump on the "More power to ya!" bandwagon of charging high prices
> just because you can.  Nobody on this list seems to be yelling "Yeah
> Exxon!
> You made $40 billion this quarter in profits, way to go!". Sorry, this is
> my
> opinion and I'm not backing down from it.
>
> It's too bad that hippie chick can't buy your van for $1,500. If things
> had
> continued on the way they were going she could have bought mine for
> $1,500.
> I paid $3,500 for it back in '96, figure it'd be worth $1,500 today. Nope,
> according to Berhards up in Allentown I can get $7,000 for my van now
> which
> seems ridiculous.  Like I said, I never look at what my van is worth and
> get
> excited. The reason is I always plan on having a VW Van so the current
> prices are what I'd have to PAY to buy a new one. . Astronomically rising
> prices does not help me in that category.  I just find it sad that these
> vans are now becoming more of a collector's item and a toy for the rich
> than
> what they were meant to be. Luckily prices for parts, part in fact to
> places
> like Bus Depot, etc. have dropped dramatically over the last 12 years.
>
> And I'm still dreaming VW will build another camper. That would be great
> that when I buy another camper in 10 years it would be something
> relatively
> recent even if used.
>
> Bryan
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
Crescent Beach, BC
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27