Ken,

What kind of hassels would we run into when trying to register, and insure what I
will refer to as a "grey" market vehicle. I don't know and I'm not trying to
throw water on the idea. In fact I'm a prety good candidate for one myself, if
the above issues are resolved,

Thanks
Ron Semko
Orlando, Florida
1984 Vanagon with 200,000 plus miles

KENWILFY@AOL.COM wrote:

> Talked to Detlev today and he said he made a cool find in Germany.  He went
> to a yard where they had 66 Vanagons there that are all high top conversions.
>  These vans range from '85-'91 models and are all diesels.  The vans are
> yellow and the high top is a factory installation.  There is enough room to
> stand up inside the van with no problem and the sliding door even has an
> extension on the top of it to allow you to  stand up in the door way!  The
> diesel engines are all 1.7l Normally Aspirated and many are 5-speeds.  These
> vans were used by the postal system over in Germany to carry packages.  They
> have the front windows but are like a panel van in the rear.
> The 1.7l engine is basically a 1.9l with smaller pistons.  So they could be
> bored out and 1.9l pistons put in their place giving you more power (around
> 70-something hp) at around 30 mpg.
>
> Detlev says if we wanted to we could do a group purchase of these vans that
> would cut down on the individual shipping costs and hassles with customs.
> The vans range in price from $1200-2800 each and we might even get a better
> price if we bought all of them at once!  Also shipping costs would only be
> around $500-800 each if we brought over a good group of these and then
> customs is alot easier as well when dealing with larger numbers of cars
> coming in at once rather than just one vehicle.
> Detlev says that he would be interested in doing the negotiating on the
> purchase of these vans for a small fee (a couple hundred per van).
> So I wanted to ask the list what they thought.  If we get enough people
> together to buy these vans we could get some really nice diesel vans or
> candiates for the I-4 swap.  The hightop makes them really good candidates
> for camper conversions as well.
> Any folks interested in this please email me or call me here at
> (609)-327-0027 today or tonight at (609)-765-1583.  I need to get this
> together pretty quickly though so let me know asap.
> Thanks
> Ken Wilford
> Van-Again
> John 3:16