Alberta L400 owners - how much did you pay for your van?

[skipirate]

Hi,

I am new to this forum, looking to join the club and become a delica owner relatively soon!

I have a question - how much did you pay for your vans?? I see them advertised for around $9000 but last I talked to a mechanic that deals with L400s he was saying the going rate for these vans is closer to $5000 in Calgary. Does that sound right?

So lets hear it - sellers / buyers what did you sell or buy your L400 for?

Thanks!

[CREGAN]

I have had mine for 2 years on April 1st. Paid $12 500. Much like with most used vehicles- the less you pay in price, the more you pay in repairing it. There would be a reason an L400 is going for $5000. I would say that if I were ever to buy one again I would buy it from someone here on the forum in Delica Trader. If they are on the forum, chances are high they care about it and have put alot into it.

Craig

[psilosin]

I have not seen a single L400 advertised for anything close to $5000. You can find decent L300's for $5000 from time to time. Lucky to find a good L400 for less than $10,000 (ie mine currently listed on DelicaTrader is a HOT deal!).

The reason is most L400's have solid gold stranded wiring that alone is worth over $6000 with todays gold prices. I have brought in over 200 L400's just for the gold and used the ~$800,000 profit to buy the twinkie recipe and rights from the now defunct Hostess company.

Some of the above information is 100% true...some of the above information is 100% false kind of like that from your mechanic.

[403delica]

12 500 and it has been hassle free, for the most part, I bought from coombs and the debate will always rage over what you pay vs what you get.

He is not lying about the gold, i used it in my wife's wedding ring!

[CREGAN]

I have not seen a single L400 advertised for anything close to $5000. You can find decent L300's for $5000 from time to time. Lucky to find a good L400 for less than $10,000 (ie mine currently listed on DelicaTrader is a HOT deal!).

The reason is most L400's have solid gold stranded wiring that alone is worth over $6000 with todays gold prices. I have brought in over 200 L400's just for the gold and used the ~$800,000 profit to buy the twinkie recipe and rights from the now defunct Hostess company.

Some of the above information is 100% true...some of the above information is 100% false kind of like that from your mechanic.

That was awesome! I laughed out loud again. You should put a little asterix in your signature:

* Comments are loosley based on actual events. May or may not contain nuts, beef, pork, and or chicken.

Craig

[FalcoColumbarius]

I have not seen a single L400 advertised for anything close to $5000. You can find decent L300's for $5000 from time to time. Lucky to find a good L400 for less than $10,000 (ie mine currently listed on DelicaTrader is a HOT deal!).

The reason is most L400's have solid gold stranded wiring that alone is worth over $6000 with todays gold prices. I have brought in over 200 L400's just for the gold and used the ~$800,000 profit to buy the twinkie recipe and rights from the now defunct Hostess company.

Some of the above information is 100% true...some of the above information is 100% false kind of like that from your mechanic.

That was awesome! I laughed out loud again. You should put a little asterix in your signature:

* Comments are loosley based on actual events. May or may not contain nuts, beef, pork, and or chicken.

Craig

*and may contain side effects .

[psilosin]

I found a video of me swimming in the pile of gold I salvaged. Sorry for the poor quality making me look like a cartoon duck...filmed on my crappy cell phone.

[gti_speed]

$9,800. I looked for a long time and never saw anything close to $5,000. Can't comment on the gold. I don't want my wife to know these things...

[Big-Bird]

Well I am about the burst everyone's bubble cuz my 96 L400 did cost me 5000. It was far from perfect....they seldom are as many find out very quickly once they arrive in Canada and don't get looked at by a skilled eye.


I also spent a couple grand in preventive maintenance at CVI then 900 on like new factory rims and tires.

Still for under 9k I have a van from japan I can rely on. So I guess these low buck units are out there. Maybe if you imported it yourself and knew all the steps it might be possible....hmmm...head scratch.

[psilosin]

So really your van is equivalently $8000 'on the road'. I think it's fair that if you have to do work on it immediately after purchase to be in good road shape that should count in the purchase cost for this survey. If it was 2 years later then no.

BTW mine was $10,900+12%tax +$1-2K added in additional needed repairs that I would count as purchase cost.

[CREGAN]

If we are counting additional money since landing, I have out in about another 7. That is thousands, and I would say % 80 has been on getting raped on labour by Edmonton shops.

Craig

[tonydca]

Mine was $10,700 from Mardy, and for the first three years I spent around $1700 in non-oil-and-other-fluid-change maintenance.

Now in the past 5 weeks I will have spent another $3800 (new head, IP overhaul - ouch).

But the van will be like new, and if I could sell it for $9000, I'm looking at $7200 in major maintenance and depreciation for just over 3 years of hard use. I figure most newer vehicles would lose that in depreciation alone, and I'm hoping now for a long stretch without any major headaches, as most major components from the original vehicle have been changed.

[mamalou]

I bought a 94 L400 in June of 2010 for $13,500 from a guy on the forum he had done tons of work to it and that is why i paid the price for it. I had bought an L300 a couple years before from an importer and paid less but got totally hosed... IF you get it cheap there is always a reason.... That being said I do need to sell the L400 I'm in nelson message me if you want details. Good Luck !

[nxski]

IF you get it cheap there is always a reason....

I will agree with that to an extent. I bought mine for $4000 and it needed minimal work done to it. I had it running perfectly for less than $6000 (probably closer to $5000 but it's hard to tell with all of the mods I did on top of that). The reason was that the seller was looking for a quick sale so dropped the price from $8000 to $6000 and then found out it had rust on the roof (which was the case for every L300 with cl roof that I looked at, and only cost me $100 to fix myself), so dropped it to $4000 and I bought it without inspection and on route to the insurance agency the owner received two phone calls offering him $6000 sight unseen.

If you have time to wait and check listings constantly then you can find great deals that don't require tons of work, but for the most part, it would seem that you're better off paying more initially for peace of mind.

[psilosin]

^^^ Skipirate...Nxski has an L300 not L400.

Those bricks with wheels are cheap as chips because only hippies buy them and hippies don't like to spend much...you try selling something expensive to a hippie and all you get is a guy shaking a tambourine in your face and mumbling something about 'the 1%'.