You guys are soooo behind the times.  Westfalia was acquired by Aurelius AG
a year ago.  It has no formal ties with Daimler nor any other auto
manufacturer at this time.
http://www.aureliusinvest.de/adhoc_westfalia_2_en.html

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Egeln" <regnsuzanne@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 6:32 AM
Subject: Re: Mention of the Possible New MicroBus

I have heard, but can't confirm, that Daimler has divested itself of
Westfalia. Perhaps Karl can confirm this since he recently spent some time
with the Westfalia people.

Also, there is more to the recent huge upswing in VW stock price, that ties
into the fact that "20% of Volkswagen shares are owned by the German Federal
State of Lower Saxony". Because so much of the stock is off the market, the
short sellers have trouble covering positions and that drives the price of
the shares out of proportion to their true market value.

Cheers, Anthony
'89 Syncro GL (Hidalgo)

--- On Thu, 10/30/08, The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM> wrote:
From: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject: Re: Mention of the Possible New MicroBus
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Thursday, October 30, 2008, 9:07 AM

> Of course where does that leave Westfalia who wants to
> convert an American van to a camper? Hmmm, do they start with
> Routan then re-tool for the bigger and better Microbus, wait
> for the Microbus and forget the Routan,  hmmmm.

Westfalia is now a subsidiary of Daimler Benz, and their ties to Volkswagen
are nowhere near what they once were.  VW now designs and builds their own
T5 camper in Germany.  I would assume that if a U.S. made VW camper ever
became a reality, it would be outfitted either by VW themselves or a U.S.
company.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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