David Hayward wrote:

>  I have recently acquired a 1989 "Caravelle Carat" (light yellow with
> black trim). <<snip>> it has 6 high back captains chairs with the 2
> center ones swiveling a full 360 & the rear 2 recline fully (flat).
> <<snip>> "jail bars" in the rear window  <<snip>> Q1. Was this model
> available in the USA ? is anyone else in Canada in possession of one ?
> I have not seen another except mentioned in a South African VW
> brochure.

Caravelle was, and still is the European name of the Passenger/Camper
vans from VW. The van for work, not play is the Transporter, which is
the common name for all VW vans from 1950 to date. Caravelle, Vanagon,
Multivan, Eurovan are all sub-names for the Transporter series,
describing different markets, equipment etc. The Caravelle name evolved
in 1983, and the Carat is top-of-the-line in some markets. Personally, I
have a Caravelle C Syncro Reimo camper. The Jailbars were often mounted
on delivery models, to protect the windows from goods that wanted to
move around. I have never seen a model with 6 highback seats, nor any
post 1983 with black interior. In fact, the only Vanagon I've seen with
black interior was a white 1980 with vinyl seats.

PerL
88 Syncro
Arendal, Norway