Ok !   Looks like the Vanagon revival may be a bit of a pipe dream.  But think,
if other countries are still putting out Vanagons, there should be a ready
supply of body parts and panels available to sacrifice to the almighty god "
Rust ".  At least I hope we can obtain panels and import them into our
respective countries.

Ray.

Richard Golen wrote:

> At 06:31 PM 8/15/98 -0700, Marty Wallace wrote:
> >I think that your point about Ford's decision regarding the Mustang is
> >very appropriate;  Should we all begin a letter writing campaign to VWoA?
> > VWoA's Customer Relations phone number is 1-800-822-8987.  I don't know
> >the snail-mail address - maybe someone out there can help us out with this.
>
> The reality is that it will never happen, for one important reason. German
> automotive labor rates are the highest in the world. They get paid
> approximately 20% more than their US and Japanese counterparts, and get 6
> weeks of paid vacation per year. Given the strenght of the German labor
> unions, the high cost of labor is a fact of life.
>
> In order to counter that VW, as well as the other German mfgs. have had to
> design their vehicles to be "production efficient". In other words, the
> vehicles have to be produced with the least number of assembly hours as
> possible.
>
> According to what I found out on my trip to the Hanover VW plant this past
> January, it took 60 hours of assembly time to produce the T3 (vanagon),
> while it takes 43 hours to produce the T4 (eurovan). An example of why the
> difference in hours...the roof assembly on the T3 once took 4.5 minutes and
> two people to attach to the body shell, the T4 takes under 1.5 minutes and
> is done by a robot, no human intervention is needed.
>
> The other reason why you won't see the T3 being resurected is that the T4
> is tremendously successful in the European market. In fact, the T4 has
> already outsold the T3. It seems that the only failure on VWs part is
> selling the T4 in the US.
>
> Ric