Jeff Itīs a bit different between countries, f.i. Germany has their own VW, Mercedes and Ford industry to support, France has Citroen, Renault and Peugeot, Italy Fiat and so on and just the later years the european trend has gone towards even smaller vehicles like VW Caddy (Golf panel truck) along with the other VAG group Skoda and Seat siblings, Citroen Berlingo/ Peugeot Partner, Renault Kangoo and Fiat Doblo. ( names mentioned if someone wants to have a look ;-)) Itīs more politically correct when the gas is around 6$ US a gallon and if larger transport vehicles are neccesary there is always some truckcompany that can deliver..... Andother thing is the EU import taxes Buying a Van for family transportation has been down too, there are smaller families now than a few years ago and if you donīt want a SUV many of the smallsize "trucks" mentioned in the beginning have a "Family" version with windows all around and up to 7 seats There are also lots of other familycars around, MPV like VW Sharan and Touran, Opel Meriva, Renault Scenic and the Verso versions of Toyota Yaris and Avensis just to mention a few of the mor popular Wait, I lost it somewhere there, this was to be about HiAces :) They were regarded the best buy Van for many years in Sweden - maybe a bit overpriced compared to the other Japanese brands - and was sold in large quantitys to plumbers, carpenters and others who wanted something smaller than the Chevy Starcraft gas guzzler they had bought when their Vanagons was worn down ! But as so often with company cars nobody bothered to put any real attention to their rustproofing and since Toyota left it to the customer to put that stuff on, many of them has rapidly rusted away on the Swedish salted roads which is a shame since the drivetrain was almost bulletproof. Itīs too bad it doesnīt fit in the Vanagon since there was a really nice 4x4 diesel sold :-) Calle Jeffrey Schwaia wrote >I go to Europe quite frequently, and I rarely see any Toyota Hiace's > tootling around. > > Jeff |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.