Date:         Sat, 24 Mar 2001 04:37:54 -0700
Reply-To:     Double-Cab Guy <doublecabguy@POWERSURFR.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Double-Cab Guy <doublecabguy@POWERSURFR.COM>
Subject:      Re: [Syncro] Where is Poznan?
Comments: To: "Forhan, Thomas" <Thomas.Forhan@MAIL.HOUSE.GOV>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Tom,

Thanks for the info.
I too have spent time in Bosnia, two tours of duty.
I have some pictures of the destroyed remains of the VW plant.
It was completely destroyed during the war and is still just a pile of ruins.
This factory was in worse shape than the photos of Wolfsburg at the end of the war.
From my understanding and what I was told by the locals the plant in Sarajevo only produced the VW Caddy or the Rabbit pick-up as it was known over here.
There are a huge amount of VW's there most of them were brought in to the country by returning "guest workers", people who had worked abroad as laborers. 
There is quiet the hand me down cycle in Germany, as a vehicle becomes 5 or 6 yeas old it is sold off.
They are sold off to buyers from other eastern European countries were the pollution and mechanical standards are lower.
So the older it gets the farther east it goes until it ends up in Russia.

I remember that the most prized car was the Rabbit and Golf (MK2 if they were wealthy) diesel.
They really loved the durability an longevity of these cars. 
But they drove like madmen on the roads.
The roads were often more dangerous than the fighting!
But the most dangerous job in the whole country was as a fuel truck driver.
Diesel during the war sold for 200DM per liter!
It was in Sarajevo during the war that I first heard of Bio-diesel.
I remember seeing these beat up old Rabbit diesels running around and when they drove buy you, all you could smell was French fries!

If you liked older VW's Bosnia was the place to find them.

Cheers
Glen
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Forhan, Thomas 
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
  Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 7:39 AM
  Subject: Re: [Syncro] Where is Poznan?


  Poznan is in Poland. Interesting.
   
  When I was in Bosnia a couple of years ago, Vanagons were everywhere. Tons of them, clearly the predominent light truck and van. 
   
  I asked, and it turned out VW had a Vanagon plant there too, before the civil war. I saw a few Syncros , but not a lot, and of course they could have been built elsewhere.
   
  Tom F. 

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