Date:         Sun, 16 Aug 1998 06:47:26 -0400
Reply-To:     Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Resurrect the Vanagon?  Letter Writing Campaign?
Comments: To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
In-Reply-To:  <19980816013159.26809.rocketmail@web1.rocketmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

At 06:31 PM 8/15/98 -0700, Marty Wallace wrote:
>I think that your point about Ford's decision regarding the Mustang is
>very appropriate;  Should we all begin a letter writing campaign to VWoA?
> VWoA's Customer Relations phone number is 1-800-822-8987.  I don't know
>the snail-mail address - maybe someone out there can help us out with this.


The reality is that it will never happen, for one important reason. German
automotive labor rates are the highest in the world. They get paid
approximately 20% more than their US and Japanese counterparts, and get 6
weeks of paid vacation per year. Given the strenght of the German labor
unions, the high cost of labor is a fact of life.

In order to counter that VW, as well as the other German mfgs. have had to
design their vehicles to be "production efficient". In other words, the
vehicles have to be produced with the least number of assembly hours as
possible.

According to what I found out on my trip to the Hanover VW plant this past
January, it took 60 hours of assembly time to produce the T3 (vanagon),
while it takes 43 hours to produce the T4 (eurovan). An example of why the
difference in hours...the roof assembly on the T3 once took 4.5 minutes and
two people to attach to the body shell, the T4 takes under 1.5 minutes and
is done by a robot, no human intervention is needed.

The other reason why you won't see the T3 being resurected is that the T4
is tremendously successful in the European market. In fact, the T4 has
already outsold the T3. It seems that the only failure on VWs part is
selling the T4 in the US.

Ric