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Which to choose ?

You’re looking for a Syncro and support on which Syncro you should look for?

Well, it’s nearly impossible to tell you in general which kind of Syncro would suit your needs best. It is depending of many different and highly individual factors. Let’s try it the other way around and consider what you want to do with a Syncro. For holidaying you need of course a camper, or a Single/Double Cab with a cabin.

You are looking for heavy offroading? Get a high 14” or 16” Syncro with at least rear diff lock, better both, bigger tires are always better.

You want to have 4x4 for a more general on road use? Look for an original 14” Syncro, and pay more attention to the accessories and conditions.

Diesel or Gasoline? Well, original diesel (1.6 TD, JX-engine) is a bit to weak to handle a heavy camper, but fuel efficiency is quite good and it can cope well with lightweight vehicles. Gasoline is faster and stronger when you choose the 2.1 litre engines. No matter which one of them you take, they are fine, but they want to be fed quite well and have some electronics.

Keyword Electronics:Some prefer to travel to remote locations with as less as possible, better with none at all, electronics. The reasons for that are, that it might be difficult to repair electronic components far away from civilization and mechanics can be improvised easier. It’s a horror for many travelers to have to abandon a vehicle because a little black box refused to keep up its work. In the end it’s depending on your knowledge, the quality of your vehicle (or engine conversion) and spares plus tools you take with you.

In my opinion there are only a few good engines, which have never been installed originally. You can take a 1.9 Turbo Diesel (AAZ engine) which is set up nearly exactly like the original 1.6TD, but stronger (some skills needed, but not too complicated to get this conversion done). The non plus ultra is a TDI engine in a Syncro, you can choose between a 90HP (1Z-engine) and 110HP (AFN-engine) when you want to stay in the "normal conversion"-range. Other Pumpe-Düse-engines are also possible. For these engine conversions you need much knowledge to have a well functioning result. In the end, it’s just great to do some offroading without burning your clutch, because you have enough torque available.

Well, let’s get away from modifications, as you might just start looking around for a Syncro. You can get a good overview at www.mobile.de or www.autoscout24.de.There you can look for "Volkswagen Syncro", “T2/T3 Syncro”, or “T3 Syncro” in the chapters “PKW” (cars), “Wohnmobile” (campers) or “Nutzfahrzeuge” (lorries). Try all of them, there are always some funny vendors who put their cars in weird chapters. Also try to look for a “Synchro”, as even wrong spellings happen sometimes and they can be real good offers. Sometimes even eBay is a source to be considered. In general, prices have gone up drastically within the last few years without any sign that this trend will slow down.

If you need any assistance, advice or an offer getting checked, please let us know about it. We can and will help you with our knowledge. Of course inspecting a Syncro, writing a report and maybe negotiating for you with the vendor for you is not for free, but it can also save you some money and even start to make it possible at all to get the Syncro you are looking for.

We hope that our information is a good source for you and that you will remember us when you need a spare part, a nice add on or transportation from one continent to another ;-)

Please call again and enjoy looking around on our pages.

Yours Henning and Dina B. Gramann

Last Update: 2009-05-07