Date:         Tue, 10 Jun 1997 20:16:42 -0400 (EDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         SSGSPEAR@aol.com
Subject:      Re: new syncro stuff

  If the Type II T4 Syncro was available in the US, I would buy
it......providing I could afford it.  That, to me, is the biggest stumbling
block to VW, or other German car makers, success in the US.  This probably
cannot be helped.  Neither VW, nor any other manufacturer, can control
monetary exchange rates.

  Another would be power, or rather, lack of power.  In a country that is
used to having 130+ hp in vans, mini-vans and sport utes, 90hp is rather
wimpy.

  Another would be advertising.  No one will buy a product that they don't
know exists.  Very few people know that VW ever produced an all-wheel drive
van.  About the only ones I talk to that do know are the ones with a Syncro
or are into VW vans.

Well, these are my opinions.

SSG Brad Spear
'72 Westfalia
'87 Vanagon GL Syncro

In a message dated 97-06-10 04:22:32 EDT, you write:

<< Dear syncro listees,  
 
 today I ask you a personal question because you were kind enough to answer
the 
 request for syncro driver's email adresses on the V@L list:
 
 What (the heck) did I do wrong ???
 
 The news about the 'Gute Fahrt' >>New VW off-roader<< opinion-poll is really

 exciting from my point of view and I absolutely cannot understand why there
is 
 almost no comment on or from the list about it. The questions I ask myself 
 are:
 
 - Nobody interested in stuff from far away europe ??
 => In the last two month since subscribing I felt the opposite was true.
 
 - Nobody interested in having a new off-road VW Bus ?
 	=> Cannot imagine !
 
 - Should discussions about 'speeding behind some eightteenwheelers' be more 
 interesting than the question if there will be a new syncro 16'' in a few 
 years ?
 	=> No comment !
 
 - Was the FRIDAY involved discussion about the 'New Splittie' too confusing 
 for the readers  ???
 	=> Well, maybe there is a problem to distinguish misunderstood fun-stuff
and 

 authentic news.
 
 I wasn't really prepared to have the day come so early when all syncro
Vanagon 
 people in the world should work together. But if nothing will happen now,
the 
 argument of VW marketing dept. for the next five years will be "We had a
poll 
 in 1997 and nobody asked for a new off-road syncro Bus !! Sorry, no demand
no 
 production !" 
 
 Please help me understand all that - and please do it in a way a
short-sighted 
 four-year old german child will get it. I really consider unsubscribing from

 V@L and quitting overseas activities because it bores me reading hundrets of

 messages and REs about things like "Where best plug in my portable Hoover in
a 
 Vanagon ?" and having almost no reaction on the basic question "Do you want
a 
 new syncro Bus ??" (Not even a "F... -off".) 
 
 Tell me freely what you think, any comment is appreciated ! 
 
 Thanks and best regards 
 
 Tom N.
  >>