From: 01ksdavis@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu (Rebel without a pause.)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.vw
Subject: Re: The PROBLEM with VW today...
Date: 11 Dec 92 19:25:54 GMT
Organization: BSU Journalism Dept.


	Just thought I would contribute my $.02 worth to this thread.  I
believe in the original poster, but I do NOT beliebe the usual excuses cited
for not making the Bug anymore.

	1.)Safety-there are cars on the market today that I consider to be more
dangerous than the VW bug.  Why?  Let me tell you why:

	A.)ABS-the only thing ABS is guaranteed to do is to prevent your car
from going into a skid on dry pavement.  That's it.  That's all. It does NOT
mean that the car will stop any sooner, although sometimes it does.  I consider
this to be media/commercial hype.  The driver is lulled into a false sense of
when he or she is able to stop.

	B.)Airbags-are very good to have in head-on collisions, as are most of
the NTSA safety tests are concerned with.  Think about the concept of the
airbag, though.  This puts explosives within everybody's car.  Also, stop and
think about what the majority of most automobile accidents are.  I don't think
they are head-on auto to auto collisions, but rather broadsides and other
fender benders.

	C.)There are cars smaller than the VW bug out there today.  The Geo
Metro/Suzuki Swift clones.  If one can stretch the imagination to call these
cars.  These cars lack one important thing for safety (as anybody who has ever
rolled a car knows, called a frame.

        D.)Finally, ecological reasons are also cited.  Their might be some
truth to these reasons, but if there is, so what?  Car companies still actively
sell and make diesel powered vehicles, which make the emmissions of a VW Bug
look almost eco-friendly.

	The above are the reasons why people (including VW) attribute the end
of selling the bug in America, and each one I think I have countered with a
reasonable enough argument.

	So, why do I believe that the VW bug is no longer sold in America?  If
you ask me, the reason is a big conspiracy that VW themselves were involved in. 
Hey, people attribute J.F.K.'s death to a conspiracy, so I have every right to
attribute the bugs "death" to conspiracy, also.

	Certain people lost money on the VW bug.  These people included GM,
Ford (who had the opportunity to buy the VW Bug plant in Wolfsburg after the
war), and various other companies, like, say, perhaps Antifreeze companies.  

	All of these people didn't like losing money year after year to "That
ugly little foreign car" that "would never amount to anything."  After about
twenty million of them, Ralph Nader, and the EPA, the conspirators finally had
enough to try and convince VW to stop selling the Bug here.  What we have no
idea of is the fact that the Antifreeze companies may or may not have blatantly
attempted to buy VW out.

	Think about what I have just said.  Why else would VW switch to
water-cooled?  Can you say kickbacks?  Can you say sell-outs?  Maybe the
ultimate thing is the fact that the VW Bug lasts, while other cars do not. 
Most historians, when asked upon for a symbol of reliability in the latter half
of the twentieth century say that the VW bug is that symbol.

	I have seen the new VWs, and I do like them.  I especially like the
fact that BMW had to build a V12 engine just because the Corrado used to be
able to beat anything they had.  I think road and track or car and driver said
it best, the BMW was beaten by a lowly VW.

	Kind of perverted, their version of lowliness costs more than most
people see in a year.

	This is another big beef of mine with VW.  Their new cars are great,
but because of the VW Bug, they will always be equated with good cars at a
cheap price.  Sad that many people find out differently when they get into a VW
showroom.  Even the new Eurovan, which isn't rear-engined, or air-cooled, costs
$20,000!  And that's before the import minivan tax!  Stupid enough is VWs
decision to not sell the Westphalia version of that here in the U.S.

	Somebody else said that he considered water-cooled cars superior to the
air-cooled ones.  While he has a right to say that, I do not believe that he is
right in comparing the technology hat each of them had available at the time of
manufacture equally.

	(How many people knew about ABS, power steering, power windows, and
power door locks, not to mention climate control and Airbags, when VW sold the
first to Bugs in 1949?)

	Was going to reply to this thread earlier, but i didn't have the time.

	
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	Kyle S. Davis		01ksdavis@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu?	R R 2 BOX 103
Disclaimer:  If anybody else has my opinions,                   Alexandria, IN
then I have been cloned while sleeping!                            46001
Newsgroups: rec.autos.vw