Date:         Sat, 29 Mar 1997 18:20:46 +0000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Steven J. Hughes" <Steven.J.Hughes-2@tc.umn.edu>
Subject:      Re: VANAGON digest 1311

> Topic No. 24
> 
> Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 00:11:44 -0800
> From: mholser@Adobe.COM (Malcolm Holser)
> To: vanagon@lenti, scr@pacifier.com
> Subject: Re: Eurovans, Winnebago and Westfalia
> Message-ID: <199703290811.AAA12974@natasha.>
> 
> There certainly were EuroVan Westfalia Weekenders sold.  Saw one today
> on 101 south of San Jose, the lovely bright Teal color.  I remember
> three lined up, their tops popped a few months ago at the VW dealer on
> Steven's Creek in San Jose (all used ones).  Now they have four Winnebagoes,
> all white and boring.  The Westies say "Westfalia" on the roofs, but the
> roof is really thin, and goes the full length of the van.
> 
> No bright Teal any more...
> 
> malcolm
> 
> ------------------------------

We've seen a few EV Westie Weekenders here in St. Paul, too.

The poptop on a Westie EV has to go the whole length of the roof because
the roof is not as long as 
that on a Vannagon. While the vehicles are about the same length, the EV
has a snout--one disadvantage
of having an engine in front!

When we lived in Vancouver in 1995 we saw scads of EV Westies with
_full_ camping gear.
I friend of ours let us borrow his '92 DIESEL powered EV Westie. I think
it had 78 hp! It was 
slow going over the mountians... We loved it, and would have bought one
ourselves (gas powered, 
though) except that we were moving back to the US, buying a house, and
getting married. 

BTW, It was also interesting to see that VWoC provided a _much_ wider
selection of vehicles 
than VWoA--ever seen an EV with double doors instead of a gate? Or for
that matter, a diesel EV?

We were told that VWoA did not import any of the full Westfalia EV
conversions because of the
exchange rate, and the VW of Canada was discontinuing their Westie
conversions for the same reason. 
Too bad! We'd love to own one, but the Winnebago EV conversion is on a
16" longer chassis and 
is just tooooo expensive for our blood. Also not as versatile. A
standard chassis EV Westie would be 
just great for driving to work with and then heading out of town, but
the 16" longer Winnebago 
is just too big to be a general purpose vehicle (at least for us--my
wife would refuse to drive
it), and too expensive to have as a second recreation-only vehicle. 

Guess we'll stay with the '87 Westie (which we sold our '93 EV to get!)
forever.... 

Does VWoA Care? Or was the Westie market so small that they could walk
away from it? Do they think 
people who would have bought an EV Westie will buy a bigger, more
expensive EV Winnebago? 

Personally, I think they blew it.

-Steve