We bought a van! Part II: The purchase

If you read Part I here, you’ll know that our purchase came after a few years of researching and reading, lusting and lurking. To say that my husband was 100% on board is a bit of an overstatement; like just about everything I find myself obsessed with, he thought I’d eventually lose interest in my #vanlife preoccupation. Who knew that I actually aspired to what Chris Farley warned me about when I was in high school: if I didn’t play my cards right, I’d end up living in a van down by the river. Fast forward 25 years, change it to the ocean, and count me in!!

After a few years of online researching, I knew that our best option was a van. But, as with anything, coming to an answer often brought with it more questions. What kind? How big? New? Used? Price? I set my budget at $20K or less—thereby ruling out most anything new. Alas, my dreams of the fully tricked out Sprinter were dashed…at least for now. I scoured Craiglist and read every post, trying to imagine the seller on the other end of the ad. I looked at my work calendar, trying to find long weekends that might allow for travel to see a van in person. And then I saw it: an ad for a 2002 Eurovan Weekender, located just about a hundred miles away, for $15K. The post was lengthy and detailed, with lots of photos. Better yet, it wasn’t written in all caps (trust me, these things matter to me); buoyed by the complete (and error free!) sentences, I reached out to the seller with a few questions. He answered quickly, offering detailed responses (again, well written ones! Always an English teacher…) and seemed to answer my questions fully and honestly.

It was time to tell my husband that I was ready. He wasn’t necessarily as gung-ho as I, but he humored me. Sure, we can take a look at it, he said. But we need to be ready to buy, I said. And so, after trusting that this was how Craiglist worked (full disclosure: neither he nor I had ever bought or sold anything on Craigslist), my husband agreed that we should, if all played out the way we hoped, be ready to purchase.

The seller and I emailed back and forth, I bought the CARFAX report, and spoke at length with my father-in-law, someone who had spent his life working for GM and whose opinion I trusted completely. While the vehicle wasn’t perfect, nothing was a deal-breaker, he told me. High mileage? That’s a good sign. Kept in storage during New Hampshire winters? Even better. No rust? BONUS! The fact that the O2 sensor triggered the check engine light and wouldn’t go off on its own? Again, no worries he told me. A small oil drip? Nothing that couldn’t be repaired. What about haggling, I asked. If you really want it, offer the asking, my father-in-law suggested. It looked like a beauty, in good shape, and it’s an honest asking price, he said. That I knew—I had done the research, and I hadn’t seen many of these vans—in good shape—at this price.

And so that’s how we found ourselves, on one cold and drizzly day in November, the proud owners of a 2002 silver VW Eurovan Weekender with about 186,000 miles.

Remember when I said that $20K was our budget? We were thrilled that the van came in under that. But, oh wait, nothing is ever that simple, right? Nope. That small oil leak ended up being a $2K repair. And that O2 sensor? After weeks in the shop, a lot of testing (and even our efforts to clear the code so the van would pass the state emissions test), we learned that the van would need a new electronic control module, another $2100 expense when all was said and done. Luckily, we were able to get one of only two matching ECMs in the entire US…or they’d would have had to check in Germany. Phew! After a few weeks of spinning and wondering if we now had a $15,000 paperweight, the new ECM did the trick—no more check engine light and a passed emissions test! Whoo-hoo!

We’ve certainly been learning a lot about vans, and I’ve spent more than a few hours lurking on the boards at TheSamba.com. But you know what? It’s a freaking beauty, and we’re looking forward to the trips we have planned this summer. Stay tuned for details!