Club 80-90 Forums

OK I know this has probably been covered before, but Im new to syncro's (and T25's) - can anyone give me the top 5 things to look for whne buying a syncro ?

thanks for any guidance ...

Does this help?
https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ma ... ive_Owners" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

excllent thanks for the link !

One thing the Wiki does not accentuate enough is the capacity of wallet required............

John Potter wrote:One thing the Wiki does not accentuate enough is the capacity of wallet required............

oh thats a worry ! do u mean for buying or maintaining ? I think I will be looking at a high-miler as I dont have much to spend ..

If you dont have much to spend and wont have any left to spend on it, then its really the wrong vehicle for you.. unless you are really lucky, are pretty good mechanicaly etc, dont drive it all the time, you cant run a syncro on a budget...

If you dont want to spend much fixing it, then you have to buy one that has had money spent on it, this naturally pushes the price up... something with no history and "cheap" is a big risk... factor in a poss gearbox rebuild (prob from £800+) which many will require, plus all the extra drivetrain cv's etc and poss a VC add in the potential abuse/lack of maint its had... and it starts to cost a good bit.. We all freely admit that they can be costly to live with, but once things are sorted properly they are pretty good..

I take it then that a std T25 would be substantially less to run then (without the 4WD complications ?) ...

earlybay wrote:I take it then that a std T25 would be substantially less to run then (without the 4WD complications ?) ...

Not really.

Yes and no....

You have to remember that the youngest of them are now 17 years old.. the oldest are 29 years old...
Depending on how much you can spend and how much you can do your self.. and how lucky you are in getting one that has had money spent on it already...

earlybay wrote:I take it then that a std T25 would be substantially less to run then (without the 4WD complications ?) ...

I'd say that a std T25 is cheaper to maintain. Syncros are more complex and the syncro parts can be quite dear (less around, so you don't get nice cheap repro parts like you can for standard 25 from the likes of JK etc).

A non-commercial 25 (e.g. an original camper) is likely to be in better nick than a commercial 25.

If you're new to 25's, it's a different ball game to Aircooled ownership. Still cool, still fun, still heartbreaking, but the bloody engines are stupidly inaccessible, there's stacks of silly pipes everywhere and you can't fix it with just a screwdriver, parts are dearer as well, or maybe I just buy more bits for my 25's than my bay...

The way I justify the cost of my syncro is to compare it to the new cars my mates buy. Drive it off the show room floor and take away a 3rd of its value. A couple years later in most cases you can halve its value. I Bought my syncro for $5000au and spent many times that amount on it within 6 months. Not all of that was necessary with a lot of upgrades being bought but I did my research and knew what was to come! Also don't forget to consider parts availability. This is a down side here in australia as a lot of things need to be sourced overseas so if something buggers up while you're on holiday in the middle of the outback it isn't the simple fix of hitching a ride to the next mechanic or wrecker and grabbing the parts you require as with more common vehicles.

ericos_bob wrote:The way I justify the cost of my syncro is to compare it to the new cars my mates buy. Drive it off the show room floor and take away a 3rd of its value. A couple years later in most cases you can halve its value. .

This is true, but for the OP, a 2WD will be cheaper as it has less running gear parts & its these extra/specialist parts that cost!! Only buy a syncro if you want/like syncros. If you just want a T3 buy a 2WD.

That's true. Obviously depends on what you want in a car. It shouldn't be too difficult to decide between 4wd and 2wd. Going from 2wd to 4wd will limit the available options should you wish to keep the attributes that make a vw kombi such a versatile vehicle and you may find you have no other choice than a syncro once you start to compare it's pro's/con's in relation to other 4x4's. cheers,erik