Finding a '86 VW Vanagon Syncro for sale

Initially I had wanted a VW camper bus like 1960 I owned, but not so old. A VW Vanagon Westfalia, with its stove, refrigerator, pop-top, fold out bed, fold-up table, and lots of cabinets would be great as a road trip and camping vehicle.

However, I learned about a guy who was selling his 1986 VW Vanagon Syncro passenger van. In addition to having the Syncro 4WD package, it had already been converted to use a Subaru engine. The selling price was very reasonable, in fact approximately the same amount as it costs just to buy the parts for converting a Vanagon to use a Subaru engine...without the cost of the Vanagon or Subaru engine themselves.

I decided that the Syncro setup and the already-installed Subaru engine meant more to me than the camping setup, especially because I could always build cabinets myself...or get them out of a Westfalia model in a junkyard somewhere.

When I contacted the seller, he said he was getting married and his bride-to-be wasn't very comfortable with having a car that's now 22 years old. So, he decided to sell it. He said that the rear seat folded down flat, and with the pad that covers the rear deck, it makes a much nicer double bed than the one in the Westfalia, which is a lot narrower because of the cabinets that are located on the driver's side.

The seller was open about the problems, the biggest of which was that the current Subaru engine was burning 1 quart of oil for every 100 miles [this works out to be about a tablespoon of oil every MILE]. Strangely it did not leak any oil and only smoked a little. Otherwise the vehicle was in pretty good shape. I asked him if it would get me 1100 miles across the desert in Summer and he said it would...as long as I kept oil in it. It also has air-conditioning, which was not currently blowing cold air. The seller thought it needed a refrigerant recharge.