@colinjoseph_ makes some great van art on Instagram – of course the finest being his rendering of @wkndvanlife’s Sprinter Westfalia!
Van Life art
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2012 Westy touring the U.S.
A couple from Germany got in touch with me recently to let me know that they’d shipped their 2012 Westy over to the States and will be touring the country.
While over here they’re interested in meeting other Sprinter Westfalia / James Cook owners – and I’m sure many U.S. owners would love to see the updated version of the van!
Find out more here: http://djc5.de/about.html
And track their progress here: http://djc5.de
If you can’t meet them in person, here’s a video tour of the van:
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Bay Area Sprinter Westy for sale
Update: the van is sold.
Susan sent me the following about her van for sale:
Pristine condition. Less than 7,000 miles. Located in SF Bay Area. $65,000
The vehicle has been serviced periodically at Hilltop Dodge Crystler in Richmond California. It has been kept in a garage storage unit. One repair (very top items, such TV antenna, air conditioner cover, due to accident with storage door) done by airstream dealer service center.)
You can get in touch with her at [email removed after sale].
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How to find a Sprinter Westfalia for sale
The most common question I get through this site is: how do I find a Sprinter Westfalia for sale? Having sold my own, I no longer actively seek out ones for sale to list on this site, so here’s where I generally point people to look:
- The sprinter_westfalia Yahoo group. This is a very active, very knowledgeable and friendly group of owners, and probably includes a good percentage of current Westy owners. Vans come up for sale on the list periodically.
- The Airstream Westfalia forum on sprinter-source.com. Another active site with Westy owners. You could also check the for sale forum on the same site.
- A craigslist aggregator like SearchTempest.com. These sites let you check multiple craigslist sites from a single search – configure your search for the entire US and set an alert if you can.
- I’ve seen a few vans come up on EBay. They seem to command higher prices, but don’t always sell through the site.
Do you have any other suggestions for places to look? Let me know in the comments.
Are you selling your van? Post it in the locations above, and feel free to send me the info if you’d like it posted on this site.
Posted in for sale, how-to
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Removing the air conditioner
If there’s one thing I dislike about the Sprinter Westy, it’s the Kerstner air conditioner on the roof. The van was never designed for one – the European versions have an extra skylight in its place. And the unit itself is heavy, ugly, and loud.
I always contemplated removing mine, since it didn’t work anyway. But the size of the unit and the height of the van always scared me away. But Ted G. didn’t have any such qualms!
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Will this one fetch $70k?
Update: The listing went a bit haywire and was removed from eBay. In the Q&A the seller states:
Q: What would you consider reasonable offer?
A: I have turned down 63,500. Acceptable offer has to be above 65,000I’m not sure if the van sold or not. I’m refraining from speculating on what it’s worth 🙂
A reader contacted me yesterday and pointed out a Westy on eBay, with a Buy it Now price of $69,500:
Posted in for sale
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Airstream Sprinter Westfalia for sale in Berkeley, CA
Update: Van is sold.
Brian Borg sent me the following info on his Westy for sale. Please contact him directly if you’re interested.
Westy for sale!
Price: $50k
Location: Berkeley, California
Miles: 93k
Condition: Good
Contact: Brian Borg, (email removed after sale)
Full pics can be found here on dropbox
Details
I’m a happy Airstream Westfalia owner, having bought one new in 2007 from the Intermountain Coach Airstream dealer in Colorado Springs. But my life turnings have led me overseas, and this vehicle is simply not getting much use any longer…so after a couple years of internal wrangling, I’ve finally come to the decision to let her go.
Beautiful camper van with beautiful views
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Airstream Sprinter Westfalia for sale in Spokane, WA
Update: The van has sold.
Abe sent me the following info about his van:
2005 Airstream Sprinter Westfalia.
Location: Spokane, Washington.
Price: $52,000
Mileage: 52,000
Posted in for sale, photos
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Interior pictures of my van for sale
Update: Van has sold!
I posted the van for sale before I’d taken interior shots – I finally took them and uploaded them, so here they are:
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Time to sell my van… Airstream Sprinter Westfalia for sale near Seattle, WA
Update: Van has sold! Happy trails 🙂
(Added interior pictures here: Interior pictures of my van for sale.)
The time has come to sell my van! You can tell by the fact that I keep this blog that I LOVE the Sprinter Westfalia 🙂 But I’ve just bought a house and I can’t keep the van anymore. I’ll be saving up my money for another one, though – there’s absolutely nothing like these vans in the USA.
The van is near Maltby, WA – about 30 miles northeast of Seattle. Price is $55k.
(Update: I had the mileage wrong when I posted this ad. Actual mileage is 44,000.)
Ian Stock’s blog post is a great overview of the vehicle for anyone unfamiliar with a Sprinter Westfalia. Basically, it’s an award-winning European camper converted by Westfalia, on the Mercedes Sprinter platform. In 2005, Airstream imported just 250 of them, making them literally the van for one person in a million 🙂
The van is in excellent shape; everything works except the air conditioner, which is the only unreliable appliance on these vans. More and more owners are replacing their original units with simpler, lighter modern American versions; some have removed them altogether. I was planning on replacing ours with a solar panel. (Update: I should make clear that the rooftop air conditioner is broken, but the dash air conditioning works perfectly!)
The generator fires up each time, the propane stove works beautifully, the hot water heater provides plenty of shower time, the fridge stays cold. I upgraded the black water system on the van, replacing the stock tank with a custom tank twice the size (20 gallons).
At the same time that I replaced the plumbing, I added digital tank sensors to the black and grey water tanks. Instead of the 33% / 66% / full gauge that came stock, the new sensors provide 1% levels to the digital display.
There’s a Stowaway Max cargo carrier in the rear hitch, which provides 16 cubic feet of storage on a swingaway frame. We carried firewood for the trip, camp chairs, Tonka trucks, and more! It has a locking lid and a locking hitch pin, and is completely waterproof.
Even without the box, the van has an amazing amount of storage. There are cupboards and shelves throughout the entire vehicle, and we happily camped as 2 adults and 2 young kids with all of our stuff.
The engine runs beautifully, and I’ve always used Mobil 1 synthetic. There are 44,000 miles on the odometer – barely broken in for these 5-cylinder diesel engines! I’ve averaged over 20mpg this whole time. Though I never took the plunge, many have run straight biodiesel in their identical Sprinters with fantastic results.
So there you have it! I’m sure there’s stuff I’ve forgotten to mention. You can get in touch with me through the contact form on this site. I’d love to talk with anyone on the phone, too – just email me first and I’ll send you my number.
Happy travels!
Mike.
Posted in for sale, photos
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