1990 Vanagon GL
I am thinking of buying a used Vanagon and would like to ask some opinion if the car I am buying is a good deal. I used to owned a 1984 Vanagon and very familiar about the layout of this engine. Since they stop making it in 1992, I decided to find a used one with good service record. I found one that has 154,xxxx on a Volkswagen dealer lot with a price tag of $5,991. According to the Carfax, is has two previous owners and no accident. The engine and transmission was replaced at about 115,000 along with other service records. The car has been inspected by their Volkswagen dealer and no other issue except for the air conditioning that needs charging. I know dealers ask a higher price tag compare to private seller. What would be a fair market value on this Vanagon in your honest opinion?
hi, i saw this question a lot of times and as many others know too it is very difficult to figure a price without seeing the car itself. in your case i would be twice as carefull ,.. because of the change of engine and tranny. usually it should be in good shape up to 200000mls with proper maintenance. if it was changed earlyer like on that van you are looking at,.. that means also that this van was used a lot without the maintenance it deserved. i would also be alerted when the price is below market even with a new engine and tranny in it. and the thing when money is no question,... they build the VW Vanagon "T3" till 2001 in southafrica with the 2.3L 5zyl and a lot of poweroptions like powerlocks, powersteering, ac, and much more. pretty good equipped,.. and when i remember right you could by them new for less than 30.000. perhaps there is a way to reimport them,... back on the price of your van,... in my opinion the VW "T3" vans on the market are 25% overpriced anyway,.. we are still talking about a car with 17years highway under its rubber. hope i could help a bit
Thanks for your kindly response. Though I forgot to check back my response after looking up other options but no luck. I decided to make an offer at $5,200 and they accepted it. It's really hard to find a decent one and if there is, it goes really fast specially here in California in which they are still popular. I prefer one domestically in California which is drier and perhaps no visible rust compare in the mid-west. So, I took a chance on this one and hope to maintain it for keep sake. I think I bought it for emotional reason.
you are totally right,.. a vanagon today is ,.. in my opinion,.. a emotional buy. i hope you will have a lot of fun with it
Thanks. Talk to you again.
