I drove it tonight, after a few months of casually looking around I found 
this one in the paper: 1985 Vanagon GL, 124,000 miles, completely 
rebuilt engine.

Physically, the body and interior appear to be in good shape.  The 
present owner runs a VW repair shop in Tucker, GA.  The only problem he 
warned me about before driving was steering groan--he said this was the 
power steering pump.  After researching the gopher site, I'm wondering 
if the rack might be bad.  At any rate, he has offered to replace the 
power steering pump.

Also, after reading the list archives, I'm getting concerned about 
leaking head gaskets and cooling problems.  How much of a problem is 
this exactly?  The rebuild has approximately 18,000 miles on it.

The test drive was impressive, the vehicle didn't seem to drive like 
something with 124K miles.  The engine was reasonably quiet (seemed even 
more quiet than my '92 Passat Wagon) and it made no expensive sounding 
noises.

The asking price is $2,850.  Is this reasonable?  Am I about to make the 
mistake of my life?  I had a '71 Bus in college and I've been wanting 
another one for some time.  I have a '92 Passat Variant now, so I should 
have something to drive while this one isn't running (but I digress into 
pessimism).

Any advice out there for this one who wants a watered down (or water 
cooled) reunion with his hippie days at the University of Kansas?  Thanks 
in advance.-- 

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Donald Baxter              dbax@netcom.com         Atlanta, Georgia USA
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I'm lying in the shade
Of my family tree
I'm a branch that broke off
What will become of me?

  --Laurie Anderson, Bright Red/Tightrope
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