Date:         Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:16:05 -0700
Reply-To:     John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: SA grill availability
In-Reply-To:  <bfb5ccc40610241339o347bfc29wf13247438f127dce@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

>   Rumor has it that it's been discontinued

Well, according to Groschi who used to do the SA parts thing (he's
given up the internet parts business entirely, it seems-- his site
just links to vw-winkler.de now!), South Africa has parts supply
regulations similar to the US, where the manufacturer has to supply
replacement parts for 10 years after the end of a vehicle's production
run. Because of that, the parts should continue to be available at
least until 2013-- but unfortunately the regulations don't say that
VWSA has to procure the parts in a timely manner! They seem to let
backorders pile up, then run off various parts in infuriatingly small
runs at 6-12 month intervals to satisfy the "legitimate" domestic
demand, and then let the backorders pile up again. Subsequently,
unless you live there and can get to the local dealership right when
they let you know the parts are in, chances are you won't find
anything in stock. Normally, the quantities of parts they run off
would be plenty for any ORDINARY out-of-production vehicle, but the
demand for the SA Vanagon parts in Europe and the US is just insane,
so any surplus "high demand" parts run out in a matter of weeks or
days. I think when it got to the point where Groschi was facing the
prospect of having to BRIBE a factory worker just to get the brake
caliper saddles for the brake kit (running the risk of him saying
"money? what money?"), that's when he threw in the towel.
 So yeah, we can probably look forward to the grill (and other SA
parts) showing up sporadically for another 6 years or so.

This is, of course, all third hand hearsay I got through my father
who's talked to Groschi several times over the last year, with details
possibly translated from German to English a couple times and maybe
even garbled by Skype a bit on top of it, so I can't guarantee the
perfect accuracy of all of it...

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"