I'm also in La La land - I live in topanga.  I see vanagons all the time, and when I drive around town  see them daily.  Also noted younger people driving them as well as old long hairs.  When looking to purchase I was also looking at american conversion vans - vanagons were twice as much.  A good conversion could be had for around $4000.  I bought my '85 weekender for $5500 and have put in around$1500 fixing it up mechanically.  May have to put a new trans in as well, but it got me to Santa Fe and back.  On that note, I didn't spot a single vanagon on the road out through the desert on the I-40, but saw a few in Santa Fe and a couple in Flagstaff.

Dan
Los Angeles, CA
"Winky" the '85 Westy Weekender

On Oct 19, 2011, at 7:38 PM, Jim Arnott wrote:

> On Oct 19, 2011, at 2:36 PM, Richard Koerner wrote:
> 
>> Cheap to buy,
> 
> Uh no.  My '83.5 passenger van was about $13,000 new. A new 1983
> Econoline was $7,500.  Vanagons were most assuredly not cheap to buy.
> 
> Jim