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HFOAIE
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2005
Posts: 130
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 Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:59 pm Post subject: Karmann Edition |
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For those who suffer from "Karmann Edition IQ", the following words offer a cure:
The concept of a Special Edition is to distinguish a few cars from others of their kind. This is entirely not the case with the Karmann emblem.
Volkswagen, and other car manufacturers, do their best work building high volume cars, like the Beetle sedan, but low volume cars are best farmed out to smaller manufacturers called coach builders. It's a common European practice, and it just amounts to some cars being made in different factories than others.
Karmann is a German coach builder that specializes in making convertibles. Karmann made the bodies for every 4 seat Bug convertible since 1949, plus all Karmann Ghias, and their later water cooled equivalents too.
Karmann put an emblem on every Volkswagen it built, and that means the Karmann emblem is on every 4 seat Bug convertible since 1949. Being built in the Karmann factory makes these cars a little special as a group, but it cannot differentiate any of them from each other. The Karmann emblem cannot be interpreted by modern standards. There has never been any intention or implication that any of these cars are Special Editions or Limited Editions. No special trim package. Nothing commemorative going on. Just identification of the factory they were all built in.
There were some actual Special Editions that also happened to be convertibles, like the Sun Bug convertible, and the Champagne Edition, but being built in the Karmann factory is never a qualification to make a car a Special Edition.
Ironically, most Special Editions did not carry identification.
Leave the emblem alone; just know why it's there, and enjoy the normal IQ. |
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djkeev
Samba Moderator
Joined: September 30, 2007
Posts: 32989
Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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jhicken
Samba Member
Joined: October 24, 2003
Posts: 9479
Location: Fallbrook, CA
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 8:45 am Post subject: |
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FWIW, VW has produced a very popular "Wolfsburg Edition" Golf/Jetta produced for many years which came with special "Wolfsburg Edition" badging on them. I believe lesser informed folk assume that their convertible with a "Karmann" badge on the quarter must mean that it was a special "Karmann" edition. Nothing to get your panties in a bunch over.
-jeffrey
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SuperSamba
Samba False Idol AI
Joined: June 03, 2000
Posts: 1541
Location: The Interwebs
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:49 am Post subject: |
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This has come up several times before.
The posts above explain things, please refer to them. |
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