This is a bit of a myth. VW designed and built 'Vanagons' for the whole
world and the US market with 55 mph was only a small part of it. They
built the same vehicles for many markets that had no such speed limits.
Both before and after the brief time diesel vans were sold here they
were selling them in Europe, with the same 48 hp and low gearing. They
sold hundreds of thousands of them.

The problem isn't that they designed them for us, but that they DIDN'T
design them for us. That limited the market appeal here, where people
want to just push down on the gas and go. VW learned that the hard way
again when they came out with the Eurovan, here with a 2.5 5 cyl. Though
we got the most powerful engine option of any market it was given such
bad press here as underpowered that VW withdrew it until the 6 cyl
version was ready. In other markets it was successfully sold with far
less powerful 4 cyl engines and NA diesels.

Mark

> . Back in those
> days we had the 55 mph speed limit and the early Vanagons especially the
> Diesels were designed around that limit. For some those vehicles are fine
> but the lack of power is probably the main reason these never really sold.
>
>
>