1982 VW Vanagon Westfalia Camper 1.8L Jetta Engine Manual Trans – Auction in Oakland, CA Ends Saturday, March 26th at 6pm PST
Ohhhhh la la California Westy hunters. Here’s a unique find that just went up on the eBay auction block with No Reserve ending Saturday March 26th at 6pm PST. This interesting specimen is a 1982 VW Vanagon Westfalia Camper with 131k on the odometer, stock manual transmission, and a very special engine situation.
For those unaware of this vehicles uniqueness, it’s kind of, um, against the rules, but sort of not. See, on the books, it’s a diesel, as it originally came with the 1.6L naturally aspirated VW diesel that’s slow as molasses, but got decent mileage. It now has a 1.8L inline 4 cylinder gas Jetta engine, which I don’t believe is a CARB approved engine, however since it’s still titled as a diesel, it never has to be smogged, so no one will ever know 🙂 According to the current seller, the previous owner had the engine put in about 8k miles ago to the tune of $12k. International Auto Service in Livermore, CA did the swap and full documentation is available. It appears it received a brand new long block, though there’s no mention of “which” 1.8L engine it is, though I’m hoping it’s got close to 100 HP, if not more. Maybe the seller is reading this and can clarify further here.
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- Original Striped Upholstery
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- Cockpit Looking Good
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- Nice Original Paint – Upgraded Wheels & 3 Window Tent
On that note, the seller is definitely a flipper or dealer, as they’ve used up their free auto check report on eBay, and they have quite a lot of vehciles listed on their feedback as a seller page, including this recent 1985 Westy Camper. They’ve got 100% positive feedback, so it sounds like they’re on point. However, it’d be a good idea to check the VIN on CarFax, or similar, or maybe you can convince the seller to buy and share a title report on their own (not sure why they don’t do this anyways). However, they did go the extra mile to provider 3 detailed videos of the exterior / interior, engine running and a test drive.
Other Features I’m Enjoying About This Rig.
- It looks to be mostly rust free, even the seams, door jams and other areas show that classic Aussan Brown paint.
- Fresh 3 window tent canvas, possibly only a few years old.
- It appears to come with all the standard curtains and screens, this is harder to come by than one may realize.
- Upgraded wheels, they look like the 15″ GoWesty Mercedes clones.
- GoWesty Pop Top assist shocks already installed. I prefer the Jack Bombay interchangables, but these are nice too.
- Solar? It is mentioned, but no further details like charge controllers, house batter, inverter, etc.
- Portapotty included! I’m not sure if I would roll with one of these, but hey, it could deifnitely come in handy.
Addtional questionables To Follow Up On
- Mold, yikes! Though it looks to have been cleaned some, there is evidence of mold on the pop top. Might not be too bad, but seller should have discussed this a bit more. It’s visible in the photo of the upstairs.
- The seller hasn’t “tested” the kitchen appliances. This one really grinds my gears, and many sellers, especially flippers, do this often. “well, it’s there, but maybe I don’t want to just try filling the propane and water tanks to see if it all works. Please do this. The pics of the kitchen do look great though.
- Check on that VIN to try and verify the title history, looking for mileage, accidents, branding, etc.
With all that being said, what do you think the high bid will be? I’m thinking 16k or so, but maybe as high as 22k depending on legitimacy, VIN history, etc. Let us know what you think in the comments below, or head on over to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest and share your wisdom there.
