[Vwdiesel] VW Trucks-Travis G

[Keith Family]

<  I was wondering the other day after seeing a lot of this 
little micro trucks (Some foreign asian brand,with two seats and 
the cab looks like a mini van front with a little truck bed) why 
wouldn't vw bring there truck back to the US. People want the 
usability of a truck but can't afford the fuel of the US trucks. 
Everyone is jealous when I tell then what mine gets for MPG and 
while everyone realizes you can't haul a trailer very well or 
really large loads,the vw truck does do furniture, beds, wood 
(wood stoves) school supplies. It does even hold quite a bit of 
hay bails I have found. Most people I talk to would love to get 
one. Just food for thought. I know if they did ever bring one 
back my whole family would each buy a new one (because our old 
ones even rebuild are still old on safety and noise control). I 
do seem more and more of this mini trucks everywhere I go and I 
just thought there is a market for those so why not VW also since 
they to have experience. I even see farmers with the mini trucks 
now.  >

Actually, the VW Rabbit (Caddy) truck has been available for 
years in South Africa.   Probably still is.

But for us, forget it.   VWOA is too busy selling to the 30 
somethings who don't know better, and didn't live through the 
last gas crisis.   You can see it in the "new rabbit" which still 
has yet to be offered in a diesel version (to my knowledge) and 
yet was offered as a direct competitor to the Honda Civic EXCEPT 
VW decided to offer it with an overblown engine - and little more 
than half the gas mileage.

I have an A4 Golf TDI bought new in 2003 and it was hen's teeth 
to get it to me then.   A full three months delivery, you took it 
the way it came, with options decided for you, and with no choice 
in color.   And this was back when diesel fuel was $1.29 a gallon 
and the diesels were in little demand.    But, you want a VW, you 
play VWs game.     I liked the car.   It still had some of the 
"plain jane" appearance of the 1980 Rabbit I owned many years 
earlier.

A BIG purchase difference from when I was forced by the dearth of 
VW diesels in the early 1990s to settle for a Honda Civic.   Want 
Air Conditioning?   No problem, we'll add it.   Don't want a 
radio?   No problem, we'll take it out.    The car will be here 
later this afternoon.   Later a problem with an exhaust leak in 
the catalyic converter?   No problem, it's handled by the recall 
Honda offered in 1994.   Did I say I was forced?    Hondas were 
pretty cushy manacles.

After 12 years and 300K miles of Honda I decided to try to a 
switch back to VW.   Is it a decision I would repeat?   Maybe not 
after that $360 hosing I got on a burned out glowplug.    The 
same glowplug that I diagnosed and changed myself for a grand 
total of $16 in the 1980 rabbit.   But "self diagnosis and 
correction" is no longer a part of VWOA's ownership vocabulary. 
Ross-Tech here I come!

Gosh, such hubris about the 1000 litre circumnavigaton of the 
world in the 80 day Lupo diesel.   The website while it existed 
was a master of web design with moving pix and shadows and all 
sorts of gimmicks.   Did we see the remarkable car here in the 
US?   It got like a 3rd page headline in the New York Times when 
the car passed through the Big Apple.   I learned about it a full 
two years after it happened and only because I wondered if any 
Lupos existed in the US through the car "greymarket."

VWOA could have made the Lupo happen here but instead chose to 
fall into line with the EPA and DOT.

VW made their name in the world as "the people's car."    Not so 
now.   It's now a car (and a company) who have "upscaled" (i.e. 
read sold the consumer "up") and no longer follow in the spirit 
of the original name.   More apt name "The Sheeple's car."

OK everyone.   You can go back to sleep now.   Rant over.  And 
yes, I still have the 2003 TDI and no plans to replace it - 
mostly because there are few options better - short of finding a 
used Honda Insight, or a 1980 Rabbit that isn't a rot box.

Best,
Joe