Susan,

I have a few specific thoughts on this, and so will include more than just pricing 
advice. But first, to more or less directly answer your questions:

Two data points: a dealer here in the DC area has a '91 Automatic Carat
with 75,000 miles, asking $9978 for the past two weeks but it is not moving, probably 
could be had for $9250 or less. Recently a listmember in the Carolinas
was trying sell his, sounded very nice, starting price was $11,000, if I recall 
correctly.

You should call your bank or credit union and ask them to look up the wholesale and 
retail values in the used car price book, including marking down the price for the high 
miles (there is a table in the book), or do a web search on Edmunds and find their used 
car price site. The latter has national averages, though, and your bank will have a book 
reflecting prices in your region. Incidently, the 90 and 91s all came with with the 
cruise, windows, etc, and you should also have some groovy aluminium wheels, not 
hubcaps.

Now, lets be frank: your car needs work. You already know about the minimum $130 for the 
a/c, (did you try someone other than VW for this diagnostic price?) and the window 
repair can be expensive if the dealer does it -like $500, though if you find someone 
ingenious and motivated, there can be some real savings. The big problem is the "slow 
coolant leak" which is typical of these cars. It might be able to be fixed for a while 
with some sealant you put in the coolant itself, but the real fix is much more involved, 
$800 springs to mind. If you, or the next owner, does not take care of this in a timely 
manner, the price you pay is a new or rebuilt engine, $3-4K. 

So in selling this car, you have some disclosure issues to deal with. Can we talk? Your 
carat needs work, and it could easily be $1500 worth.  In your situation, I would be 
happy to get something like the wholesale value for it, so advertise it for $500 more 
than wholesale with "needs some work" in the ad, and see what happens. 

Of course, you could always just trade it in, and in this case, insisting on full 
wholesale price (after negotiating the best price you can on the Jetta) would be the way 
to go. But if there is only one VW dealer in town, and the service department already 
knows the car, you are in trouble....(Hmmm...I notice that my own standards for 
disclosure are higher for strangers than for dealers). To test the waters, drive it 
around to three dealers, tell them that you want to sell it this week and are getting 
three bids, and see what they say...whatever it is, the highest of the three is the 
absolute least you should take for the car.

Now, my other opinions on this matter:

Actually, I'd rather have my son driving a slowpoke, big old vanagon any day, rather 
than zooming around town in a new Jetta. If he finds the Vanagon/manual transmission 
combination daunting, good!

Finally, consider that just the taxes and registration on the Jetta will pay for fixing 
the coolant leak on the Vanagon. You are in beautiful rust-free Texas, after all. If you 
can figure out a way to pay for a new Jetta, why not figure out a way to pay for fixing 
the Vanagon, this will ultimately leave you big time dollars ahead. Required reading for 
all wannanewcar folks is the relevant sermon from our beloved Bob Hoover at: 
http://www.sky.net/~rmk/hoover/forever.html

Good luck,

Tom F.