I've been asked by a mate to look at one of these for his ex-girlfriend (you read right ex). It's a 1985 on a C, 1900 petrol, with one of those tent type pop up roof jobbies (only pops up at the front).

From the description it doesn't sound the best, but has only done 80k miles according to her (bad news, probably done 180k).

I haven't even seen it yet and told him to avoid it, but she has a good feeling and it's green

Anything to look out for in particular ?

Here's the kicker, they want £4k, she thinks they may take £3.5k (and happy to pay that), surely it's not worth that much, I've had a quick look on ebay and can get late 90's models for about £1k more ?

get on the volks zone forum and ask on there, belive water cooled ones had issues with coolant

I know a guy in 'The 'Port' who's a proper geek on these Mate. Do you want me to put you in touch?

My mate did a full resto on one. He was intending to, it was 'ahem' solid when he got it. Lots of welding. Apparently they rot bad.
His had the solid GRP high roof, he said the folding ones are prone to leaking and splitting.
Mechanically he loves it, bomb proof was one phrase he used. Toured around europe in it. But it was the body that really let it down

so its a watercooled 1.9
look round the head seals for any gunk signs of leakage,
as for rust jacking points, seat belt mounts, sill, under sliding door, and the rear swing arm mounts.

i have owned 2 of these the current one is a 1988 2.1 had it for 6 years and its done 350k yes thats 350k!

best van ive ever had.

the 90s t4 transporters are cheaper and you can see why. the engines in the wrong end for a start.

whoever is looking at it needs to look at
www.club80-90.co.uk

Some of the flat four water cooled engines can suffer with rusted head studs where they pass through the water jacket , the studs can shear when undoing the head nuts. Replacement studs are stainless steel which helps. Broken studs can be a nightmare, if not impossible to remove. Body rot can be a problem as well

I run a T4 & have worked on a fair few of the earlier T3/T25 which is the one you'll be looking at. Before you think it's knackered because you see a fair bit of rust around the seams have a good look at it for real rot, I've seen a few that looked scruffy for years without having any structural issues. That's not to say it wont be rotten, they are well made but it's a 25 year old vehicle.
Mechanically I dont know much about the petrols, they were all diesels that I worked on but the running gear was tough & generally not too bad to work on.

It does seem a lot of money but it's all in the condition & spec, plus there "VW tax" to pay, it's got the badge so you have to pay more!