Used 1983 VW Vanagon Westfalia 1.9 Turbo - cars & trucks - by owner -... for sale in Berkeley, CA

I’m sadly selling my beloved Green Westy named Honu. I’m pretty much the second owner, the first owner bought this car off the lot and used it as her vacation car with her family around the US and Canada for 30+ years. It wasn’t a daily driver but was taken care of meticulously with all the maintenance papers saved. She ended up selling it in her divorce and that’s when I found the car.

She spent a lot of time and money on getting the van updated and customized with stuff like marine grade electrical, new flooring, solar, dual batteries and veg oil conversion (optional). I spent about 10 years lightly looking for a Westy and when I found this one, I couldn’t not buy it.

This van has treated me so well but I’m just not driving it like I used to and it should go to someone that’s going to use it the way it’s supposed to be used. Over the last few years, I’ve put in a ton of work to keep it running great and have kept up with all of the maintenance that’s come up. Almost all of the work has been done by Karmakanixx in Berkeley, Steve is an old family friend and Westy aficionado so he’s taken amazing care of it.

Feel free to reach out with any questions or to come take it for a drive.

I tried to list everything below but it’s been a lot of upgrades that I have all the paperwork for so happy to show in person as well:
1983 Volkswagon Westfalia
1.9 Diesel Turbo TDI (New Engine)
Manual 5 speed Transmission

Original Paint
Manufactured in Canada (Rare)

Mileage: 117K Miles on the body, Engine is much less

All paperwork has been saved and is in the van

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The Good:

Replaced Engine – TDI 1.9 (Faster than original)
Clutch Plate and Clutch Disk

New Tires
New Injection pump
New hoses
New Dual battery
New Custom Exhaust system
New Fuel Tank
New Wiring Throughout
New Accessory Belt
New Fuel Filters Throughout
New Fuses

Underbody is rust coated and clean – it’s been kept inside garages for its whole life

Kitchen is all functional (I don’t run the fridge because my yeti works better but it all works)

Solar:
Blue sky pwm solar controller with digital readout
Separate outlet run by a 600 watt modified inverter
Built in battery charger
Marine grade electrical throughout vehicle

Veg Oil Conversion
Built out to run veg oil if you wanted
I wouldn’t recommend but it’s doable

Reinforced custom rear steel bumper
Tow hitch mounted to front bumper

15 inch wheel with continental 8 ply off road tires

Shady boy awning
LED lights internally
New speaker / faceplate
Custom wood floors
Custom cutting board table (Still have the original as well)
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The Bad:

The gear shifter is currently slipping out of 3rd gear. This isn’t an urgent issue as it drives fine but it is something that could be addressed eventually. I’ve reduced the price of the listing to account for this cost. It doesn’t make sense for me to fix, so that’s why I’m just taking the cost of the work out of the original price. Here’s what I got from my mechanic:

“It’s a common, prevalent problem with the synchro-mesh vanagons that there can be sliding from gear 3 to 4.
To repair the tranny needs to be rebuilt.
To pull the Tranny and replace it after rebuild is approx $975 in labor
To send the Tranny to the Transmission Repair (?) shop could be $1,600 - $2,000”

There’s a bit of rust on the back left panel and near the bumper as is with pretty much every westy. The underbody has been coated so it’s just cosmetic rust on the seams on the body. Seeing the paint is the original, it’s overall really clean besides a few spots.