Get Outdoors in This 1990 Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia Camper on Bring a Trailer
This one ditches the cassette tape experience with modern batteries and audio, but keeps the nostalgic charm.
It's also quick and reliable enough to go the distance, with modern VW power.
While not a cultural icon like the original VW Microbus, the Volkswagen T3 van of the 1980s and 1990s is nonetheless steeped in nostalgia. Especially so the Westfalia camping variant: for many a kid, sleeping in the pop-up roof tent of a Westy is as much a part of childhood camping memories as s'mores and mosquito bites. The only problem is, by 2025 highway standards, a classic Westy is slow enough to be little more than a rolling pylon for traffic to swerve around.
But not this one.
Camping-friendly pick of the day from Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of the Hearst Autos) is a 1990 VW Westfalia with some lovely modern upgrades, including a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with enough gumption to muster up easy interstate cruising. With a few weeks left for late-summer camping, as well as sunny days left in the shoulder season, it's the ideal machine for some West Coast cruising. Bring your own marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate bars.
Let's start with the engine. Early Volkswagen campers of this generation had an air-cooled engine that made even short-range trips take longer than a Grateful Dead concert. By the end of the Vanagon's run in the U.S., the engine was a more modern water-cooled unit, but still never broke the 100-hp mark.
This 2.0-liter four-cylinder crate engine is sourced from Foreign Auto Supply (FAS) and is good for approximately 135 horsepower and 135 pound-feet of torque. Paired with a four-speed manual gearbox, it should imbue this Westfalia with Golf-like performance. There are faster Vanagons out there–Porsche even swapped a flat-six into a couple of them as testing support vans—but this example should be adequately powered and have good parts availability from any VW dealer.
Next is updating a 1990s camper van for the modern era. To that end, this Westy has a replacement lithium-ion auxiliary battery with power converters. There's a portable solar panel, and the original 12V fridge has been swapped out for storage, with a much more efficient portable 12V fridge/freezer included. The stereo now works with Apple CarPlay, and the sink has been upgraded.
Additionally, the suspension has been treated to new bushings and springs, the canvas top is new, and various seals have been replaced. It's got upgraded headlights, tough-looking front and rear bumpers from specialist Rocky Mountain Westy. You get that vintage Volkswagen camping experience with just enough modern convenience to make it even better than you remember it.
This Westy is being sold out of Portland, Oregon, and you could hardly do worse than fly out and drive back home, camping all the way. Or head out to the Oregon coastline on vacation, for some of the best coastal camping there is, and pay your respects to The Goonies. A Vanagon Westy might not have the Woodstock vibes of an original 1960s VW, but it's still a magic bus.
The auction ends August 21.
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