Insane $70,000 Volkswagen Syncro Westfalia

1. 

   Dana October 3, 2012

   This is not out of line for as extensive a conversion as this is. A Go-Westy full restoration with their updated water-boxer VW engine can get into $80K plus range.
   That said you are starting to get into the range of a used high end Sprinter conversion at that price.
   More comfortable, better fuel milage, and you don’t die in a crash. Something to be said about a newer rig.
2. 

   Larry October 3, 2012

   Awesomely demented seller is a great description, Nate. Yes, I think this is an insane level of investment for a VW syncro Westy, this vehicle probably makes more sense if you look at it as a purpose-built adventure rig. In that light, it’s probably (at least reasonably) price competitive at 70 large with other purpose-built adventure rigs. It seems like an impressive quality build with top-shelf equipment and features. If I was into this sort of adventure traveling, I might be wondering what I’d have to sell to scrape up the cash. Considering where this thing could go, it definitely makes more sense with a diesel.
3. 

   URSDRIVER October 3, 2012

   Hippie Rock Climber wet dream.
4. 

   Hellenic Vanagon October 19, 2012

   Vanagon is the safest car of all American/European/Japanese cars of eighties, and a very safe one even today, according to IIHS’s death rates:

   http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr2604.pdf
5. 

   Larry October 19, 2012

   Based on this insurance lobbying agency IIHS report (so surely there isn’t any bias), you can’t say the “Vanagon the safest car of all American/European/Japanese cars of eighties.” You can say that “the Vanagon had one of the lowest death rates during the 1985-1989 assessment period,” but that still says very little about how safe a vehicle the Vanagon is (and more about it’s use history).

   That IIHS report focused primarily on death rates, not even the likelihood of getting into an accident or injured. Vehicle type, design and available safety features, were in some cases noted or categorized, but not factored into the assessment. Most importantly, most contributions from major influencing factors like what drivers typically drove those vehicles, how they typically drove them, how many miles/year they drove them, in what driving environment they drove them, etc., were not factored into the assessment (not surprisingly, however, IIHS chose to rehash the data to highlight young and male drivers though).

   So, when you take such an incredibly cursory view of the data, it’s not a big surprise that IIHS concludes that conservative family station wagons are good, and sports cars are bad. (I didn’t need any data, or even a crystal ball, to predict that IIHS conclusion.)

   The Vanagon may or may not be a reasonably safe vehicle, but this report doesn’t tell me that. I have no idea how it performed in crash testing or other appropriate assessments of safety. All it tells me is that if I were tooling around in a Vanagon between 1985 and 1989, the odds of me not dying in an accident were pretty good.
6. 

   Hellenic Vanagon October 19, 2012

   @ Larry

   IIHS declares:

   1)Data of various eras are directly comparable, so that 0.6 for Vanagon is valid even today.

   2)Always, with few exceptions, 4wd drive cars are even better than the same car in 2wd edition, so SYNCRO must be even better.

   3)Factors, such driver type, are “adjusted” statistically by IIHS, so the results remain comparable even between different car types, (and drivers).

   4)Vanagon, in real life, is 62% better than estimated, according NHTSA’s crash tests, body type e.t.c., (IIHS, from the same document, “deaths much less than predicted”).

   5)Driving for more than twenty years 2wd and SYNCRO, (4wd), I can say that it is a very strong and safe car, using a special passive and active safety technology, very effectively even for nowdays standards.

   We are Syncronauts.
7. 

   Larry October 19, 2012

   If IIHS declares something, well then, it must be at least somewhat based on a fact or two somewhere, right? However, I don’t think you’ve read that report carefully enough – what you are claiming they declared isn’t really what they are saying (or can say based on the data analyzed).

   But, even if we assume for a moment that the IIHS assessment wasn’t based on biased, low quality data analysis, your original claim (“Vanagon is the safest car of all American/European/Japanese cars of eighties”) still isn’t supported by any of it. It says is fewer people died driving Vanagons in the mid-late 80’s. That’s it.

   While I’d be happy to waste some of my Friday afternoon tearing apart all the additional unsupported claims you’ve just made, that’s not really the point. You are clearly very into your VW Vanagon syncros. That’s great. I think they’re cool too, but if a potentially deadly accident was inevitable, there’s lot of other vehicles I’d rather be in.
8. 

   Hellenic Vanagon October 19, 2012

   @ Larry

   Please, in order to be more specific, let me give some examples from real life.

   You see, here we have to talk briefly with limited ways of posting documents, photos e.t.c..

   Please, tell me are you feeling safer in the next two cars:

   http://i361.photobucket.com/albums/oo57/hellenic_vanagon/Oldsmobile-Cutlass-Ciera-3.jpg

   http://en.volvo-club.cz/graphics/owners/full/191_118_volvoupr.jpg

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