Date:         Mon, 10 Mar 2003 15:45:14 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: tialpipes of busdepot
In-Reply-To:  <196.16f844d9.2b9e49aa@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

> The tailpipe I got from busdepot clearly would not fit
> a stock vanagon.   It was of good quality steel and
> one fourth the cost of the true VW part.   If you are
> not opposed to doing some cutting the busdepot
> tailpipe is a better choice for off road use as it
> rides much higher.   The vw part points down a bit
> and rides a little low for off road use. ...
> I still would like some mechanism to know that
> when I order a vw parts from busdepot I
> know when substitutions are being made.


The tailpipe we sell, under normal circumstances, definitely DOES fit a
stock Vanagon.  We sell many hundreds of them a year to Vanagon owners.
They are made by Jopex, who is one of several OEM exhaust suppliers to
VW.  So it is in fact an OEM brand, even if not the same one that VW may
be currently shipping at this time. (That changes often, depending on
contracts, availability, etc., and can even vary from country to
country.)

While the currently shipped VW brand tailpipe does have a somewhat lower
angle, the Jopex one DOES have a sharp enough bend to clear the bumper.
If yours didn't, then either the tailpipe you received is bent
incorrectly, or something else on your particular Vanagon is.  As you
know, Gary, we're refunding you on the tailpipe since you bought a
dealer one instead.  So upon receiving it, I'll know which was the case.
But we do sell hundreds of them a year, and they do fit, so this
particular one was (for whatever reason) the exception, not the rule. I
thought it might be important to point that out to those who may
otherwise conclude that the Bus Depot ships hundreds of Vanagon
tailpipes that don't fit Vanagons. :-)

As far as brands/substitutions, most of the products we sell are
manufactured by OEM suppliers to VW, but are generally not the VW brand.
As you discovered, there is typically a HUGE difference in price between
the VW brand and the equivalent OEM product. For example, $32 versus $19
for a rear hatch strut, both from the same factory.  Or $150 for a Bosch
air flow meter under the Bosch name, versus about $400 for the same part
under the VW name.   In the vast majority of the cases the quality (and
indeed the part itself!) is identical - only the price differs.  Why
don't the parts sold by us and other aftermarket suppliers carry the VW
brand?  Because it's trademarked.  Contractually, often the manufacturer
can only use the VW trademark on those parts that he is selling to VW.
While he can sell the part to other suppliers (such as us), he cannot
use the VW logo.  That's why, in many cases, on aftermarket OEM parts
such as ours if you look closely you'll see a spot where the VW logo was
removed from the part, or where the manufacturer's logo has neatly
replaced it.  Of course, if you would rather use nothing but VW-brand
parts, you can always go to the dealer. But for every case where you get
a different (although not necessarily superior) part that way, there
will likely be 50 other cases where you simply paid several times the
price for the same part out of the same factory.

In cases where the part we ship is not an OE part, it's generally
because an OE part is either unavailable, or so ridiculously expensive
that nobody in their right mind would buy it.  (Or where the aftermarket
part is actually better, as with our stainless steel Vanagon crossover
pipes, sold for the same price as VW's mild steel ones.) My guiding rule
has always been that I won't sell a part that I wouldn't feel
comfortable putting on my own Vanagon (OEM or not). Unlike people like
thepartsbin.com, for whom Vanagons are barely a footnote, we are Vanagon
enthusiasts and we drive them everyday. We use the parts on our own
vans, and know from personal experience what lasts (or works) and what
doesn't.  One way that I can tell you that our tailpipes generally fit
is that besides the hundreds I've sold, I also have one on my own '89
Westy.

There is another very important benefit to dealing with a Vanagon
specialist. We support you as a Vanagon driver, and will continue to
long after non-specialists and even the dealer have moved on to more
popular vehicles.  For example, unlike generic auto parts suppliers, I
personally make huge efforts to find parts that are not longer available
through the usual channels.  If a part is discontinued in the U.S., I'll
look all over the world before giving up on it. Maybe it's still
available in Germany, South Africa, etc. Maybe I can find old stock (if
not in the U.S. then perhaps in Europe).  Maybe someone I know could
tool up to make it. If I hear of a stash of rare old parts, I'll trek
half way across the world to check it out.  It's this kind of devotion
to our hobby that will keep your Vanagon on the road, affordably, over
the long haul.  Do you think that if a particular critical part for a
Vanagon were discontinued in the U.S., a generic auto parts supplier
like thepartsbin.com would bother looking for another source?  Why
should they, when Vanagon owners represent perhaps 1 or 2 percent of
their customer base?  It's just not worth their effort.  Even Volkswagen
themselves have drastically reduced their support for Vanagon parts, and
seems to be more than willing to discontinue coolant hoses and other
such items without which the van will not run.  With the Vanagon about
to become not just one, but two, generations old when the T5 comes out,
this situation will only worsen. Without parts suppliers who were
dedicated to these unique vehicles, where would you be in five years
when you needed a part that was somewhat more obscure than a tailpipe
(but no less important)?

So there is a direct benefit to you as a Vanagon owner to supporting the
specialists who support you - not just the Bus Depot, but the other
dedicated specialists on this list as well.  At the end of the day,
we're the ones whom you will need to count on.  We're the ones who will
be there to help you out of a jam - long after both the generic parts
suppliers, and VW themselves, have written off Vanagon owners as not
being a lucrative enough market to bother with.

Not that this last point has anything to do with Gary's comments
whatsoever, but I thought it worth pointing out nonetheless, since I was
already off on a tangent anyway. :-)

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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