Gentlemen:
I bought yet another VW last week. A guy came to the door of my barn, where
a friend & I were putting new hooks onto a tow chain. Guy says, "Steve?"
and we chorus "He's in the house; what do you need?" [Steve is my older
son]. Guy says that so-and-so told him that this might be the place to sell
off a VW that he had (I recognized so-&-so's name, and my friend actually
knows him, so we were off to a fair start). He'd bought this car, sight
unseen, after being told that it had problems, but ran. Had it flatbedded a
hundred miles, then found out that the engine made horrible noises. He
GUESSED that it might be a bad piston, so went to the dealer to try to buy
one. Of course, they sell only sets, and he got discouraged, letting it sit
at his father-in-law's house. Didn't open the engine, not even pull the
sparkplugs, so doubt that he knows more than the fact that it makes bad
noises. F-I-L wanted it moved, didn't want to be snowplowing around it all
winter, so the guy wanted to get $100 out of it (half what he paid, not
counting shipping costs). Told me that if I was interested, take a look,
and take it away; he knew where I lived, so wasn't worried about the car (or
me) disappearing. Buddy & I went over, looked it over, and hooked up my tow
bar and a light bar that plugs into trailer harness. Decided that my S10
wasn't the answer, so got Steve to tow it home with his Cherokee (snow on
the roads & two-wheel-drive were NOT a good idea!). I paid up Monday. Got
a Carfax yesterday from a friend at work. Totally clean title, no damage
reports, ever, no lemon laws, no recalls, no stolen car, etc., etc. Spent
its life in California (San Rafael) & Las Vegas, NV. Passed emissions year
after year, has had just two owners (registered, since the guy I got it from
never registered it), has been in a dry climate its entire lifetime [no
rust!], and 104,000 miles on odometer is for real. Mind you, this is a 1985
GTI (8 valve), mostly very clean, though driver's seat cover is shredded -
very common for them. And, I have a friend in Milwaukee with a 1986 8v GTI
engine awaiting a new home ever since his car was struck from behind a few
years back. I'll give him back a $75 check for money he owed me, plus
another $75, and I've got a perfect-fit engine that I know was excellent
when removed, and has had fogging oil and been turned over every month or
two. Such a deal, eh?
I keep telling my wife that I don't look for cars; they come and find
me. Here's another one! I wouldn't have found it if I'd looked. It was on
a road I haven't been on in at least five years, and behind a house, out of
sight. Even when we went there, it was so snow-covered that there was no
clue as to what version Golf it was, nor did the rust-free status show. Of
course, there was no For Sale sign, either. Yet, it found me, despite the
fact that I was inside of a barn, behind a house, on my own property, and
I'd never met the owner of the car.
"Typical" I call it!
Ron
