>On Fri, 5 Dec 2003, Gnarlodious wrote:
>
>>  Wrongly named, too. Americans aren't EVER going to buy anything with "Euro"
>>  in it. Americas can't stand stand nouns that start with a dipthong.
>
>I'm not so sure.  At the time the Eurovan came out, Americans were all
>over anything 'eurostyled'.  Unfortunately for VW, that craze wore off
>quickly and they don't change their models often.

I suppose the Honda Accord "Euro" (designed, of course, in Japan)
wouldn't sell there? It's a far superior car to the totally different
soggy US-market Accord.

Typically car lineages change designs much more often than
commercials. Say a Japanese car typically runs for a 4-year
model-cycle (though a subsequent generation may well retain the
previous generation's floorpan and more); the vans run for 10 years
or more. So the vans should be really good designs so they don't
"age". Toyota is extremely good at this. Nissan and Mazda are not. VW
used to be, until it dropped "real" vans and introduced front-engined
Eurocrap boxes. Toyota now hedges its bets by offering both
traditional vans and front-engined ones under the same name (the
larger Hiace). But then, as the world's richest manufacturer of
wheeled transport vehicles, maybe it can afford to.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin, New Zealand
64 (3) 473-8863
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh & VW/Toyota van nut