>If you will look CLOSELY at the pictures of the South Africa "Vanagons" you
will
>notice that ALL of the body panels are slightly different. In particular,
check out
>the rear windows -- they are MUCH bigger than on our 80-91 Vanagons. The
doors
>are different too.

Do you have different/better pictures than the ones on the VW SA site?  From
the pictures I see, the rear windows ARE different (sliding type, no air
vent at the rear), but the windows APPEAR to fit in the same size/shape body
panel opening.  The colors on all the pictures are too dark for me to
accurately make out individual body panel lines, but it doesn't look to me
like the body panels have been changed at all.

This makes economic sense at least.  The stamping machines that Vanagons
were made from in Germany were probably shipped to SA and used because they
were already paid for by the 12 years or so of German production.  If they
were going to spend the money to make new dies, why would that make the new
ones look almost, but not quite like, the German Vanagon?  There would be no
point, and it would be a waste of resouces (especially when they could have
copied the Eurovan dies).  Plus, the fact that the SA grille and headlight
assemblies bolt right in to our American Vanagons indicates that they are
the same metal bodies with different windows and plastic bits bolted to
them.

But if you have better/bigger pictures that prove me wrong, I'd love to see
them.

Michael B. Harrnacker
89 Weekender "Nameles"
91 Golf "Miami"
http://ruralinstitute.umt.edu/vwbus
vanagon@rudi.montech.umt.edu