The Economics of Vanlife

I paid $32,500 for my Volkswagen van, which was 19 years old at the time of purchase. When my wife told someone I’d paid “thirty-two five,” the person on the other end of the phone said, “You mean, thirty-two fifty,” to which my wife said, “No, thirty-two five,” and they repeated this cycle two more times until it became clear to them that I’d dropped three years’ worth of state university tuition on a vehicle known for its unreliability. Sorry, kids.

On the other hand, it was one heck of a sweet rig, and uncommon to boot. My new whip, soon to earn the name Vanzilla from my children, was a full Westfalia camper Vanagon Syncro four-wheel-drive. In Vanagon circles, they don’t come much sweeter. Between full campers, half camper Weekenders, and passenger vans, VW imported just 1,500 of these 4WD Syncros to North America between 1985 and 1991. Rare to begin with, they were rarer still after decades of crashes, engine fires, and all