TheSamba.com :: View topic - What's the news with the "new" Microbus...

Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:07 am

Does anybody know what VW has decided to do about producing this new Microbus. The concept vehicle is no longer on the vw.com site, does that mean that the Van will not be produced????.....

Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:18 am

VW announced several months ago that they were scrapping the idea indefinitely. :(

Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:22 am

that's been dead for a while, for the US anyway.
http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/volkswagen_news/article_816.shtml
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=9&ObjectID=10116677
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.ef182f0

Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:25 am

Thanks for the update. Too bad though....I may have considered buying one of these if the base price was not too high.

Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:29 am

this actually strikes a current sentiment of mine. Owning a 93 eurovan with 150k miles on it, I was looking forward to something new. The mb looked like a reasonable vehicle. The current form factor 'T5' (which i drove in belgium a few years back) seems just a bit larger than what I really want in a vehicle in the coming years with the kids readying to exit. I guess i'll just put the monies into maintenance and drive it less as it eases into retirement, relying on the smaller and more plastic 98 nb.

Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:09 am

i looked briefly and the tourag until i saw the price... i cant see myself spending 45k+ on a disposable car.

Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:20 am

DaveM wrote: I prefer to drive the aircooled cars around town. the water coolers are strictly travel.
they travel quite well also, least mine seems quite happy to.

DaveM wrote: to me, all the doo-dads are a distraction. give me a reliable, well built vehicle with MANUAL windows and a 5 speed.
Here it is, only thing lacking is the 5-speed:

camps the same as one with all the do-dads. :wink:

Wed Jun 29, 2005 1:53 pm

I can't justify, or for that matter believe that a Tourage starts at $37,000.
What was VW America thinking?? That we can afford to shell out that much for a new model?? no freakin' way....
Give me a Tiico engine and a solid Vanagon any day. Hell, for $37,000 I could have three Vanagons all decked out with the five speed, Tiico engine conversion, 15" rims, etc.....

www.tiico.com for those that are wondering...

As for as the new Microbus, I would bet that the starting cost on that thing would be near $40,000+...what do you think???

Wed Jun 29, 2005 4:44 pm

Yeah, it's too bad about the Microbus. When we're looking for a "family" car in a year or two, that would have been the only minivan I'd consider.

Here's a post from Len Hunt, head of VWoA, taken from VWVortex:

"Hello Fellow Vortexers:
Microbus / T-5 Eurovan:
We all had a lot of emotional commitment to the Microbus. Unfortunately, the Microbus, and the T5 generation transporter upon which it was based, simply did not price out competitively for the North American market, given the Euro/dollar exchange rate. Thus, as I had said in a number of interviews, as much as we would like to do these cars we just can’t. However, this does not stop our unending quest for emotional Volkswagen products, and I promise you that I will always be pushing for emotional VW’s.
Best regards,
Len"

The problem is, the Micro probably should have been made on a car chassis (B6, maybe) to be feasible anyway. I have a hard time believing there's no way for them to make a van and sell it in North America for a profit. They should find a way, because it's a gaping hole in the product line...

I'd rock this, especially if it was AWD:

Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:43 am

:D I would like to see a new Vanagon with a mild 2.7 boxter motor and a five or six speed. since they don't produce the 2.7 any more, it would give them something to do with those extra parts... :twisted: :twisted:

Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:22 pm

Hey, I'd drop a few bills on a new TDI Vanagon. Sure the T5 unit was "cool" looking, but I still cannot understand why it costs them so darned much to do it. For that matter, when Vanagons were new I choked on the asking price then, too.

As if Chrysler stealing their minivan concept as their own wasn't enough!

Of course, crash testing may not work out to current demands, sigh.

Yes, I've seen the poor Volvo in the picture.

Mike!

Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:52 pm

I have always loved VW buses, but I am concerned that the new Microbus will be way out of reach for the "every day person". VW seems to be targeting, dare I say it "yuppies", with their Tourage's and Phaeton's. I really hope the bus does not assume the same fate...

long live the bus...

Thu Jul 07, 2005 6:11 pm

The type 2 Transporter club UK has a writeup claiming that the microbus is about to go into production . No mention of whether that includes the USA .