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1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro Is Ready to Take You Camping on Mercedes-Benz Wheels

If it weren’t for the still ongoing health crisis, the RV movement would have probably never taken off the way it did. In just two short years, going to sleep in the great outdoors with a wheeled vehicle as a home base moved from being a habit of a select few to being embraced by a growing number of people.
1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro 17 photos
Photo: Bring a Trailer
1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro
According to statistics published by the RV Industry Association back in March, 11 percent of American households now own a recreational vehicle of some kind. And there seems to be nothing to stop that number from growing even higher.

As a result of the boom, the number of RVs now changing hands on the pre-owned market has exploded too. Just take a look at any specialized website, and you’ll see a wealth of offerings to suit all needs and tastes. We did, given how July is RV Month here on autoevolution, so expect a wealth of such contraptions to come your way in the coming weeks.

We’ll start with this here Volkswagen Vanagon, part of the long-running Transporter line the German carmaker made from 1979 to 2002. This one is a 1987 model year, modified to suit the needs of a small family on the move.

The van is a GL Syncro, meaning it was the tallest of the family, coming in at 2,085 mm (82.1 inches), and rocks four-wheel drive. It still packs the original engine, a 2.1-liter flat-four that back in its day was rated at 95 horsepower and 117 lb-ft of torque. The engine works through a five-speed manual transmission.

The blue over blue and gray interior machine may not be equipped to support outdoor living for long stretches, but just may be the perfect choice for a weekend getaway.

The Vanagon packs just the bare essentials, meaning a Westfalia Joker cabinet with a fold-down table and a spice rack, located just inside the sliding door, a roof rack, side awning, air conditioning, and a Pioneer CD stereo for entertainment purposes (provided you can still get your hands on some CDs).

There’s not an actual bed per se in there, but we do get a bench that folds down and becomes one. The seating arrangement also includes a rear-facing jumpseat.

The Vanagon rides into the great outdoor on 15-inch Mercedes-Benz wheels backed by Bilstein shock absorbers. It has done so for the past 157,000 miles (253,000 km), the magic number now shown on the odometer.

This 1987 Volkswagen Vanagon GL Syncro is presently listed on Bring a Trailer, where the auction timer at the time of writing reads a little over 11 hours left. There have been several bids for it already, with the highest one being just $11,000.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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