On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Stan Wilder wrote:

> The actual outcome of this conversion frenzy remains to be seen.
> I feel that I've seen some of it when Vanagons with conversion engines
> are selling for less than their stock counterparts on the VW Buy/Sell
> sites I've been to.

That will be true of any modified vehicle.  You have to decide how much
you can trust the person who designed and performed the modification.
This even applies (though not as severely) to a rebuilt stock engine --
you never know what the quality of the rebuild was, as a buyer.  And of
course sometimes the seller is misinformed.  (The guy I bought my Westy
from claimed it still had the original engine, but when I cleaned the
engine bay I found a VW factory rebuild sticker on the block.)

It's the rare and unusually well-executed modification that increases the
value of the vehicle to a buyer.  Generally they increase the value to the
owner, but not to others, because they're simply the owner tailoring the
vehicle to their own likes and dislikes -- which won't necessarily be
shared by everyone else.

             _ _
  __ _ _   _| | |  | David M. Brodbeck (N8SRE)              Ypsilanti, MI
 / _` | | | | | |  +-----------------------------------------------------
| (_| | |_| | | | @ cyberspace.org
 \__, |\__,_|_|_| "...we're not getting the creeps who knocked the
 |___/             buildings down.  We're getting the creeps whose
                   address we know." -- Maureen Dowd