>I am also in the final stages of purchasing a vanagon.  So I haven't seen
>it all, I would look at these three net sites to get an idea of your
>"deal". http://www.traderonline.com/auto/search/index.shtml and
>http://www.traderonline.com/rv/. Two are for autotrader's on line search
>engine which covers their national data base. The first is for cars and
>the second is for RV.  Dependending on your year their are usually a 100
>or so 81 -91 vanagons and 5-10 westys on the list. Also Edmund's URL
>http://edmunds.com/edweb/used/Volkswagen/1990/VolkswagenVanagon1990.html,
>will get you some price figures on your toy. I too have been scared by all
>of the coolant system comments,and the Aerostar was my number 2 choice.
>Bottom line for me is I have got to get this out of my system. I have been
>wanting a vanagon for seven years. I hope this gets you down the road a
>little more.

   finally got all my paperwork done. the bank loaned me a whopping 8k to
>buy my 89 westie. I put down 1100.00 and just ordered a set of yokohama
>y370s (~$385.00 mounted and stems and tax) from sears. needless to say I
>am out of toy spending money.!! The dealer I bought the van from just
>spend ~$300.00 on a new clutch master and slave cylinder for the
>transmission and a new thermostat housing and coolant change on the
>vehicle.. the kids are  whinning (when are we going to see grandma in
>the new van) and now the coupe de grace..transmission is grinding from
>2nd to 3rd the mech says its a synch gear..cost to fix ~$1200.00
>(picture of crash and burn) from searching the archives and reading
>horror stories on "hiccups" and motor overheating and head jobs and the
>fact that special tools are neede to do this work aaannndd my local vw
>dealer says his mech has never done this before,is causing serious
>friction with my murphies law wife (also known as "you got took"
>yvonne)I have done all the paperwork gotten the money, but have not
>taken delivery because the dealer is willing to work with me on the cost
>of repair...should I just save my money and get an Aerostar?
>
>desperate
>89 westie hopeful