H Steven Dolan sez:

>To import an automobile into the US, it must meet the US standards 
>as of the date the automobile was manufactured, not designed. Alas, the 
>Brazilian busses are not importable, without *major* mods. . .

This brings up a news report I heard about a year ago. According to the report, 
VW of Mexico had designed a version of the bug that totally meets all US EPA and 
DOT requirements (reinforced doors & drivers side airbag no less). The report 
said VWoM was anticipating that the passage of NAFTA would allow them to build a 
rather profitable business importing this car into the US. Supposedly, with the 
passage of NAFTA, all that stood in their way was approval from corporate HQ in 
Germany.

Did anyone else hear about this, or was it all just a weird dream? As I have 
heard nothing about this since, my guess is that the whole deal was scrapped in 
favor of the new "bug".

And speaking of the new "bug", I saw a picture of a new VW-Ford designed minivan 
in European Car that looked horrific - sort of a Lumina combined with a 
Windstar. I can't help but thinking that if VW went back and updated the 
original bus like they're doing for the new bug, they'd have a better shot at 
the US market than is afforded by their current strategy of playing minivan 
catch-up.

Paul
puusital@adobe.com