New VW van: hey, Chrysler WAS German

[kaisen]

Would Jerry Garcia approve??

[frogger]

I want to see the camping interior.

[jyl]

Looks Japanese.

[nostatic]

what happened to this?

[jkarolyi]

Yeah, I was expecting VW to make a retro "New Bus" much like they did with the New Beetle. A pop-top camper version would be awesome, and would be a unique entry in a field crowded with sameness. Could this Honda Oddysey clone get any more boring?

[HardDrive]

No kidding! I was SO stoked when I saw this as a concept, and it never made it to production. And now they come out with this hideous looking Mazda knock off? WTF? Are they actually going to build this thing. Dear lord.....

Originally Posted by nostatic

what happened to this?

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

No kidding! I was SO stoked when I saw this as a concept, and it never made it to production. And now they come out with this hideous looking Mazda knock off? WTF? Are they actually going to build this thing. Dear lord.....

I don't agree its hideous....its worse than that. Its same-old, same-old and in the car world, what's worse than that?

That's the reason I never look at new cars anymore. Is there much difference in looks among Honda, Toyota, Acura, Lexus, Mitsubishi, of the same class of car? Probably many, many fine (but BORINGLY THE SAME) cars among those mfg's but they all look alike.

The VW concept was very cool. Too bad their accountants opinions count for more than their designers.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by jyl

Looks Japanese.

Guys, this is a new Dodge Grand Caravan / Chrysler Town & Country.
Volkswagen mojo'd their Fahrvergnügen and came up with the new VW Routan.

It is the same basic shell with a new front clip and trim.

[RWebb]

Sadly, the New Bus concept got killed off due to lack of funds.

Now guess who was running VW Group at the time??

Yup - our ol' buddy Ferdinand Piech - same guy who spent money like water as Head of R&D (and Racing) at Porsche (before the AG days). Porsche's money established it as the pre-eminent racing marque, and brought us the 911 R, S/T, RS, RSR, 934, 935, 904,906,908,910, Bergspyders out the wazoo and 917s with enough hp to light up NYC for years.

At VW, he was able to boost it into one of the top full-line carmakers in the world and launched the Phaeton. The money ran out before the New Bus made it under the wire tho.

Money well spent?

[Palum6o]

fugly

[kach22i]

The concept van was very cool.

VW must be hiring ex-GM and ex-Ford people to not be building it by now.

[frogger]

Originally Posted by nostatic

what happened to this?

It looks like a toaster on wheels. Gotta have it.

[jkarolyi]

Originally Posted by kaisen

Guys, this is a new Dodge Grand Caravan / Chrysler Town & Country.
Volkswagen mojo'd their Fahrvergnügen and came up with the new VW Routan.

It is the same basic shell with a new front clip and trim.

I thought he was joking, but it's true!

http://www.caranddriver.com/autoshows/14595/2009-volkswagen-routan.html

I thought badge engineering was the sad refuge of failed carmakers like GM. The VW even uses Chrysler engines and transmissions. Scary stuff.

[nostatic]

http://www.caranddriver.com/autoshows/14582/yes-32-roadster.html?al=257

[scottmandue]

So when is the Porsche minivan coming out?

[CurtEgerer]

Yup - our ol' buddy Ferdinand Piech - same guy who spent money like water as Head of R&D (and Racing) at Porsche (before the AG days). Porsche's money established it as the pre-eminent racing marque, and brought us the 911 R, S/T, RS, RSR, 934, 935, 904,906,908,910, Bergspyders out the wazoo and 917s with enough hp to light up NYC for years.

...... not to mention turning the rally world upside down in 1981 with the Ur Quattro!

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by jkarolyi

I thought badge engineering was the sad refuge of failed carmakers like GM. The VW even uses Chrysler engines and transmissions. Scary stuff.

+1

I don't know why, but this post mad me feel angrier that it should.

I used to have a VW turbo beetle. I loved the car....for about 40k, and then the thing just started going south. After several $800 trips to the stealership, I was done with it. What sucks is that it really was a cool car. Even though I could afford a more expensive car, I looked at the new GTI.....then went back and looked at old repair bills.

It was the same story with the Toureg. The wife was on the hunt for a nice SUV, and we looked at many, including the Toureg. But then we started reading horror stories about them. When I asked the service folks at the dealership about this (we know each other well at this point), they indicated in no uncertain terms that it was a POS.

Maybe VW should get back to basics rather than trying to pass off a warmed over Dodge made in Missouri as a German brand. dumb, Dumb, DUMB

[RWebb]

I feel the same way - I've wanted an modern, updated Synchro Camper for years now. And I thought New Bus was just about there... Now this.

Gagg...

[thrown_hammer]

Sellouts...

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by thrown_hammer

Sellouts...

Yep.

My wife and I have been talking about getting a Vdub Eurovan for a while, and we've been hoping that new ones would be imported into the US. This Chrysler-clone is a huge letdown. I like the concept bus in the pics a lot. Oh well.