Hey Guys stop the going back and forth and go out and get a set of Sumitomo
HTR 200, 205/70/14.  Great tire and have held up just fine under normal and
heavy loads.  Who cares if it is a truck or a station wagon.
Cheers
Jaime

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
> Of The Bus Depot
> Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 8:59 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Vanagon Tire Guidelines Report
>
>
> > You know Ron, I can perhaps understand that
> > you are worried about losing sales, but making
> > personal insinuations is no way to persuade me
> > of your point of view.
>
> Jake, I think you must be taking personal offense to my strong
> disagreement
> with your OPINION, as I can't see anywhere at all where I attacked you
> personally. However, if I offended you, please accept my sincere
> apologies,
> as it certainly was not intentional.
>
> FWIW, I've been active on the Vanagon list for a solid decade, and my
> position has been consistent (and based on solid factual data) throughout.
> Search the list archives and you'll find the first of my many
> tire posts way
> back in 1996. I hadn't even started the Bus Depot yet, and it
> would be eight
> years later before it started selling tires. Boy, I must really have been
> far-sighted, to start drumming up tire business a decade in advance for a
> business I hadn't even thought of yet!  :-)
>
> So I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I still reject
> the claim -
> unsubstantiated by ANY scientific data whatsoever - that
> Volkswagen's specs
> for correct tire use on their vans can be completely ignored, and that
> standard-load passenger car tires (even good ones) are fine for VW vans.
> Larry's exhaustive research into the subject - certainly the most complete
> compilation of factual data regarding the subject other than Volkswagen's
> own - also supports my (and Volkswagen's) position.  I'll leave
> it at that,
> as there's no point beating a dead horse.
>
> > VW may have wanted to have the EPA recognise the
> > Vanagon as a Truck for the simplest of reasons. Light trucks
> > are held to much less stringent safety, emissions and CAFE
> > standards than cars.
>
> Interestingly, it was quite the opposite. Volkswagen classified
> the Vanagon
> as a passenger vehicle or "station wagon," NOT as a truck. This
> was in order
> to avoid the 25% import duty on trucks, and is the same reason why they
> never exported the T3 or T4 pickup trucks to the U.S..
>
> - Ron Salmon
>   The Bus Depot, Inc.
>   www.busdepot.com
>   (215)  234-VWVW
>
> _____________________________________________
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>