>From: 	Thomas Niksch, 
To:	Thomas F. Forhan, USA

Dear Tom,
after some surfing on the VW linked pages, it is really amzing: Equally in 
electronical or in printed media, you will find more hints for VW enthusiasts 
than for any other manufacturers brand. And what do these guys up in Wolfsburg 
do? They cancel even Westfalia Eurovan Camper deliveries to North America. We 
thought mistreating custumers was a german and precisely a syncro speciality. 
Anyway, it is not a real relief to hear that they behave like that over the 
whole world.

These days was VW Chairman Dr. Ing. Ferdinand Pi�chs 60th birthday. Lots of 
articles appeared in all kinds of papers and almost everyone mentioned Pi�ch's 
new "premium-strategy" for VW. Which means that after attacking BMW 
succesfully with some sportive AUDI models, Volkswagen declares a new enemy. 
Fell free to guess who it is: - Mercedes-Benz -. Pi�ch loves to talk about 
mystical things like "more than six-cylinder" "bigger than a Passat" etc. 
Which means in other terms they intend to build a luxory-class Volkswagen like 
the A8 , to compete with a Mercedes S-class, Lexus or the BMW 7. 

Last year braught some kind of revolution to the whole european dealership. As 
a consequence after having aquired SEAT of Spain and Skoda of Czechia they 
felt need to a repositioning of the traditional VAG brands VW and AUDI. So one 
of the consequences was that dealers are no longer allowed to sell AUDIs 
together with VWs in one shop. There have to be at least different show-rooms 
in seperate buildings (!) and different service-counters, spare part selling 
etc. Show-rooms have to match with a lot of expensive corporate-design 
regulations, which means that many  "mom and pop" VW shops will disappear 
within the next year and only the big "mafiosi" remain. The basic argument was 
that some appreciated customer who pays 120 000 DEM (... don't know why John 
Grisham's yuppie lawiers always come to my mind at that point) for an AUDI A8 
will feel irritated while he has to queue in the same shop together with - 
lets say - some unemployed trucker, owning a rusty 1982 Golf.

So if you follow the "premium strategy" consequently, it must be an insult as 
well for the "new Pi�ch shaped VW customer" to queue together with people 
driving a "light truck" ... <vbg>

So from my point of view (or should I say nightmare) the day is not very far 
away when some marketing f...-face at Wolfsburg will decide light trucks, 
campers and minivans inadequate for the new Volkswagen image and in future 
sell this kind of vehicle through the SEAT or Skoda dealership. To make people 
forget quickly that such kind of vehicle was ever sold at VW, you probably 
will be obliged to camouflage all the VW signs on your bus with a Skoda label. 
<vbg>

(Ferdi's) Brave New  World, you may call it. 

Imagine e.g. that it took them more than three years to adopt an existing 2,5 
TDI or VR6 engine to an existing T4 Eurovan. It had been promised to come 
"soon" since 1993 and the first deliveries took place in spring 1996. Beeing 
foolishly optimistic I dared to ask for a 2,5 TDI or VR6 in combination with 
syncro last summer and the reply was that these engines were simply to strong 
for the 4x4 transmission -  they would have to reinforce a lot of parts (ever 
heard of a tranny probs in a VW 4x4 ? <vbg>). So the answer was maybe, - maybe 
- next year. (Looking forward to still hear this in the next - century -)

So there is one thing that sometimes comes to my mind: Why do we fools (myself 
included) spend lots and lots of hours and $$ even doing advertising in some 
way for a manufaturer that will greatefully take any oppotunity to kick their 
coutomer's a..s. Maybe it's time to look for the assistence of psychiatric 
analyst. <vbg>

That was just BTW ... unfortunately it is to serious to be posted on a friday 
!

Your comments are appreciated !

Best regards

Tom Niksch