ok, along the same lines (as no vw dealers using their own products),
here's one for you ...

wouldn't it make sense to you, if you were a dealer, to have your
mechanics and service personnel DRIVING your product? gives them
familiarity with the product?

but ...

you EVER see any vw dealer mechanic or service department morons
actually show up for work IN a vw? i haven't seen that since the
1950's ... when some of the mechanics were actual germans working over
here.

it would seem to me to be good business for the dealership to give big
discounts to the staff and mechanics, just to push the product, for
one thing ... let the new stuff be seen in the neighborhoods at home.
doesn't seem to be the case. and not with just vw ... same thing at
the other dealerships.

one odd thing ... at the local Mercedes M-Class factory, they DO
something like this ... they loan out the product to the folks on the
assembly line. yup. you work there, you get to drive one for a couple
of weeks. so you know what you're working on. AND to impress your
neighbors. :)  and if you decide you want one, they give you a big
discount ... you do have to wait for yours to be built, however; but
you take it from the factory, not the dealership. and you have to keep
it for at least one calendar year before you can sell it. same deal as
they do in germany, i hear.

but it ain't a bus. :( they used to make a bus about the size of a
vanagon, called the MB-100. even looked like the vanagon. engine in
front, between the front seats, though.

joel