The Westy is Found!!
Thruout the remainder of 1991 and into 1992, I researched sources that might turnup a late model Westfalia. Sources included Internet sites and local newspaper automobile classified ads. It wasn’t until September of ‘92 that an ad appeared in the Hartford Courant for a 1987 Vanagon Westfalia Camper offered by Gengras Motor Cars, a prominent dealer at that time located in the north meadows of Hartford offering Mercedes Benz, BMW, Range Rovers and Volkwagens.
The ad appeared on Friday morning and I did not call the dealer until Saturday morning to inquire about it. The salesman I talked to said his manager had taken the vehicle home for the weekend but it could be seen next Monday. I told him we’ll be down first thing to look at it and we were there early that Monday morning. We looked it over and without even test driving it, I gave him a check for $100.00 to secure it and to give me a day or two to gather the remaining funds of the selling price of $9995.00. Note, that this price did not include the Connecticut Sales Tax, Title and Registration Fees and the invisible so-called dealer “Conveyance Fee” of $75.00. What’s that??
It only had 54004 miles on it, no rust, interior almost like new but lacking one finned OEM VW hubcap, radio antenna and a plastic cover from the drivers side windshield washer. I knew this vehicle was it, regardless!
It had been traded in on a new Mercedes by a couple from Westfield, MA. They only used it once or twice to go to Maine and had been using it as a daily driver since they bought it new. As the vehicle came from out of state it had go thru Connecticut Inspection before re-sale which meant new brakes. Gengras Motors did this, put on a new matching hubcap, radio antenna and washer cap, took our 1987 Mercury Topaz in-trade with the balance in cash, got it registered and titled and we drove it home for the first time that Thursday, September 17.
An interesting sidelight to all this was that after we had secured the vehicle the salesman called us and wanted to know if we really wanted to go thru with the deal as he had another interested buyer. “NO WAY”, I told him, “get it ready for delivery”!
Next up: Problems and fixes after delivery and expiration of the dealer’s used car warranty of 2 months or 3000 miles from date of delivery. Keep in mind the original MRSP of $19,225 in 1987 and our used purchase price of $10,000 in 1992.