Someone mentioned rising VW AC prices.
Several factors could be affecting this.

1. A lot of the are rusting to death, so there are less available.
2. A whole group of kids are getting licences that were born after
   the microbus style went out of production
3. They have started showing up in beer commercials etc to
   twang the baby boomers heart strings who lost their virginity in one.
4. Given 2, and 3, there are a whole bunch of kids that are being exposed
   to a very neat unique vehicle that they have never seen before being 
   presented as VERY COOL In lifestyle advertising!
5. Price of antifreeze is about to skyrocket due to an Eskimo cartel
   threatening to reduce production of a large portion of the 
   world's antifreeze wells;-) 

Bill Crick
76 Type II/IV/VII 
Ottawa Canada