Just Chillin' at the Campsite!
There's no denying it, VW vans are very
cool! We've owned this one for about 12 years now and it's been a LOT of fun.
This photo was taken not too long after we bought it.
We actively looked for about 3 months at
anything that was advertised and at any van anyone told us might be for sale. We saw
a whole BUNCH of rust! We'd almost given up on finding anything that was in decent
shape when I answered the ad for this one. Our eyes bugged out and we found it hard
to contain our enthusiasm as we tried very hard to find something wrong with it. :)
"So, you've just put new carpet
in it, right?"
"No, that's the original
carpet."
Yes, it looked good! 47,000 original
miles on a 1977 VW pop-top. We were talking to the second owner who'd had it for
about a year and a half. He had one other one that he was going to keep and couldn't
afford to keep both. He wanted $3500.
I asked him if I could take it to a
mechanic to have it checked over. He gave his okay and I took it the next morning. I
knew that his price of $3500 was already fantastic based on some of the junk I'd seen
priced very close to that, but it just seemed too good to be true. Well, after
getting a list of things from the garage that needed taken care of I KNEW that it was a
bargain. The garage said that the tires were rotted (original tires, 15 years
later), the exhaust needed work (original), the brakes needed work (original), etc.
I'd already expected those things to need some attention on ANY van that I bought.
So, it wasn't a surprise to me. But, I took the list to the owner, gave him an
estimate of the cost of the repairs, and drove away in OUR new (used) VW camper for
$2300! Am I a master negotiator, or WHAT??!! :)
This van has been just fantastic.
Now, 12 years later, it has 95,000 miles on it. It's normally driven only on the
weekends for either camping or trips to a local starting point for a bike ride. It
gets a lot of attention. Kid's love'em, right?
Below is the beginning of a list of VW
sites with the emphasis on vans and campers. One is for a Yahoo! Club that
I've just formed to try to get some local Tulsa owners together for camping, socializing,
etc. If you have any new links relating to vans, email me and I'll include them the
next time I update the page.
Want to talk VW's? Want to get
together? Want to brag about yours? Email
Me! |
