>	I need some guidance on a problem with my recently purchased '87
>camper Van. I was not very careful at getting the Van inspected before I
>purchased it from a dealer in Santa Rosa, CA that deals exclusively with
>VW camper vans. What I have discovered since January is that this van

I'm no legal expert, but my impression is that lemon laws do not apply to
used cars. Also I don't know how much you paid for this van, but if it's
excessive, you can always try to contact the Better Business Bureau.

I'm more confident about the following statement: $5000 for rebuilding the
engine is *way* too much and If I were you, I'd look for a more honest
mechanic.

There may be yet another alternative: resell this van and buy a nicer one.
There *are* nice ones out there, especially in CA. That's where I bought
my '75 camper 3 years ago. I paid $3000, which is on the high side for a bus
that old, but it was in great condition. So far, I have only had few and minor
problems with it. 

Unscrupulous mechanics, however, have been a bigger problem. The first
week I owned the bus, the red panic light went on: low oil pressure! The
next mechanic confirmed this ("Yeah, I've been working on those suckers
for 40 years, and yup, you got low oil pressure, blabla") and offered to
replace the engine for a lot of money. Since I was broke, I decided to
wait and started to read Muir's compleat idiot book. Taught myself how to
check the oil pressure and checked it: Perfectly fine! The problem was
electrical.

Anyway, I'm diverging... Those were my 2 cents, you'll certainly get other
opinions from the list. Good luck!

Sami

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| Sami Dakhlia                                       Voice: (314) 935-5670 |
| Department of Economics, Campus Box 1208             Fax: (314) 935-4156 |
| Washington University                                                    |
| One Brookings Drive                                                      |
| St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899                  dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu|
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