Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 20:40:45 -0800
Reply-To: Robert Keezer <warmerwagen@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Robert Keezer <warmerwagen@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: type?
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Harald wrote:
<<On a side note, what's always been a
mystery to me is why the bay window bus list
calls itself the "type 2" list.
A lot of bay window and split window
bus owners think that their models are
the only true type 2's.
Well that's not true.>>
Harald, all-
I think I can answer this for you .
Americans are very brand oriented and model names are never interchanged to
mean the same thing.
It's not OK to call a Ford Econoline a Windstar, Or a Dodge Caravan a
Grand Caravan.There is a difference.
But right now on Ebay there are at least 20 auctions of BUS/Vanagons.
I'm confused.
I drove "splittys" for seven years-it's new to me that people are calling
them Vanagons now.
I thought you might like to know this. It seems like , on Ebay at least,
it's ok to call a Vanagon a Bus or a Bus a Vanagon.
I don't call my Vanagon a Bus- it isn't anything like a Bus.
But there are many more cars made that have digit ID's, or
combinations(RX-7, MR-2, 280-Z, 914, etc.)
Names are much easier to remember, unless they are styled like the above. I
can't remember your e-mail address however if it is James5976.
Better to think of something original that's short and easy to remember.
New car ID trends are names for standard vehicles, letters and numbers for
sports cars , etc. BMW Z-3. Audi A-4.
And people like names, especially for many Vanagon and Bus owners who give
an extra personalized name to their car like Bubba, or Gertrude.
You can tell how fond I was of my old Busses from the names I gave them that
weren't obscene but pretty rude-rude enough to avoid mentioning here!
After all the years my Busses took on personalities- I really thought they
were out to get me.
When I found my Vanagon, I exclaimed Vanagon!! (I think that's Greek for, I
have found it!!)
I had not really looked at the Vanagon until the 1990's - one look inside a
Westfalia and I was on a quest to buy one.
Since I regard my Westfalia or your's for that matter to little resemble a
Bus in form ,feature and function, I am very sure that my Vanagon and your's
, are Vanagons.
So, from a factory and service standpoint, the brochures technical bulletins
and factory shop manuals of the pre-1980 era referred to their models as the
Type 1,2, and three etc.
The Bentley VW Factory Shop manual for the Vanagon makes no mention of T-2
or T-3 anywhere. I have a 1982 Vanagon sales brochure that say in bold
letters on frotn VANAGON. That settles it for me.
SO, this would indicate to me that it was intended for The United States
market to be called a Vanagon, and that is why no one in one in America ever
heard a car salesman say " What do you think of this baby-the new for 87
Volkswagen Type 2 Westfalia?"
Only in Europe and other countrys do they use the nomenclature Type 2-3.
If this was an error for the Bentley and other manuals to refer to the
Vanagon only as a Vanagon and not the Type 2, they made no effort during all
these yars to correct this, if indeed anything needs correction.
And so all of us have been taught the wrong name and it's too late for a
deprogramming after 20 years.
Here's what a woman store clerk told me , who knew nothing about Vanagons,
when she saw mine:
She said" I never liked them , you can't tell which end is the front".
Robert
1982 Vanagon Westfalia
"Secret, agent man, their giving you a number , and they take away your
name.."
----Original Message Follows----
From: Harald Rust <harald_nancy_
Here's an explanation with pictures
of what the different T's and types mean.
Click on the link:
http://www.geocities.com/harald_nancy/
and then click on "History of the VW Vanagon".
On a side note, what's always been a
mystery to me is why the bay window bus list
calls itself the "type 2" list.
A lot of bay window and split window
bus owners think that their models are
the only true type 2's.
Well that's not true.
In addition to the split window and
bay window busses, the vanagon, eurovan,
and new T5 are also all type 2's.
They are also all VW busses, at
least that's what they're called where
they're manufactured.
The names, vanagon and eurovan, were only
invented for the North American consumer.
Everywhere else they are called VW busses
or Caravelles or pickups.
So the vanagons are Type 2 T3.
The big mystery is what does the
"T" stand for?
Some people think it stands for Transporter.
Others think it's not an abbreviation,
and that it is just a big T.
Harald
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/vw-camping/
'90 westy
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Robert
1982 Westfalia 1987 Wolfsburg
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