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John Moxon 
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Joined: March 07, 2004
Posts: 14202
Location: Southampton U.K.
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 Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:31 am Post subject: US Tourist Delivery Program |
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I thought some of you might find this of interest.
| retrowagen wrote: |
| VW had a tourist delivery program from the 50's on. One could order a specific vehicle from one's local dealer, and a German dealer (or later, the VW tourist delivery depot in Wolfsburg, or at the Frankfurt a.M. airport) would prepare the car for pickup, with customs license plates, temporary paperwork and tourist car insurance. The tourist would then have the opportunity to drive the car around Europe, and return the vehicle to a predetermined shipping-off location on an agreed-upon date. Then fly home, then after a month or two, pick up the vehicle either at the port or the local dealer. |
Some of you Ghia owners will have ordered your car’s birth certificate from the Wolfsburg Museum and some of you will also have noticed against the information: “Country of destination…USA, tourists.”
My ’58 Ghia Coupe was one of these cars. I know this because the birth certificate tells me, as did the lady owner who collected it from Frankfurt Airport in the April of that year, at the outset of her month vacation.
I was relating the Ghia’s story to a VW friend the other day and he came up with an interesting twist on this “Tourist Delivery Program.” I always thought this program was just a VW marketing ploy to dress up “the buying experience;” you can still do it today, collecting your new VW from The Wolfsburg Autostadt. However my friend told me it was VWs rather clever way around the U.S. Import Quotas that limited the number of new vehicles that could enter the U.S. in any year during the ’50s and ‘60s.
Apparently VW dealers in the U.S. pushed this scheme and it was certainly a popular package. As Dave (retrowagen) has said, you ordered your VW at your local dealer, the major parts of your vacation were organized for you, you collected you new car on arrival, drove it on your vacation and returned it for shipping to your home.
So you were happy, you got your new car at your home, having already driven it on a memorable vacation. Not only that but VW were happy too because they’d sold you a new car and when it entered the U.S. it didn’t enter as a new car to count against their limited annual quota but as a used car. Bingo! VW get to ship a few thousand more cars into the U.S. every year.
I hope the guy who thought that one up got a good bonus. 
Anyone know anymore about this program...like was the cost of the flights etc added to the cost of the car and payable to VW as a complete package? I've never seen any literature on the scheme.
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EverettB
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John Moxon
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Location: Southampton U.K.
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Mase
Samba Member
Joined: May 23, 2003
Posts: 222
Location: Thornton, CO
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:57 am Post subject: |
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According to my T34's birth certificate... my '64 was a "tourist" delivery. I found this very interesting since the T34 was not officially sold in the US. I bought it from the second owner's estate (through a wholesaler)... who purchased the vehicle in 1965. The title from the second owner shows the "Date first sold" 10 days after production was complete on 8/27/63. It was one of the first 1964 1500s T34's sold... even though the Colorado Title shows it as a '63.
I have a feeling this car has always been around the Boulder area as the second owner purchased it in Boulder from a local used car dealership... but I've been unable the find information on the original owners. I'd love to locate them (or descendants) at some point... as I'm sure they'd have pictures of their travels through Europe in this car. Unfortunately CO does not have title records that far back.
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'64 T34 Ghia Coupe
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deepseeman
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Joined: January 13, 2004
Posts: 448
Location: san diego
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| Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2024 8:32 am Post subject: Re: US Tourist Delivery Program |
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I bought my 60 ghia off the original owners family. He was stationed overseas when he bought it and it was shipped over for him by VW. My certificate states "Tourists, USA". Kinda cool I think.
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runamoc
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| Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2024 12:38 pm Post subject: Re: US Tourist Delivery Program |
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| Quote: |
| Anyone know anymore about this program |
I bought a new 1984 Scirocco on a 'Buy and Fly' program. Saw an ad in 'Time' magazine about the program. Went to the dealer, first salesman said it was 'too much' for him to understand. Second one said 'lets check it out' and had a big envelope of the program. We went through it together. Sounded to good to be true so I took about 6 months before I was sure it was legit. Got financing from a local bank and ordered one from that local dealer. Free round trip airline tickets on Lufthansa. I picked a dealer I wanted to pick the car up at in Frankfurt, near the airport. VW even gave me a list of Hotels near by. Monday morning I was at the dealer when they opened. Did the paper work and drove off the lot with my new Scirocco. Drove into 9 different countries. What a 21 day adventure. Dropped the car off at a hotel near the airport and flew away. 6 weeks later got the call my boat had come in and me and a buddy drove my Baja to Dover, Del and picked it up. That made 10 different countries I drove it in. An adventure of a life time.
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EverettB
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Joined: April 11, 2000
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Location: Phoenix 602
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| Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2024 6:07 pm Post subject: Re: US Tourist Delivery Program |
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| runamoc wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Anyone know anymore about this program |
I bought a new 1984 Scirocco on a 'Buy and Fly' program. Saw an ad in 'Time' magazine about the program. Went to the dealer, first salesman said it was 'too much' for him to understand. Second one said 'lets check it out' and had a big envelope of the program. We went through it together. Sounded to good to be true so I took about 6 months before I was sure it was legit. Got financing from a local bank and ordered one from that local dealer. Free round trip airline tickets on Lufthansa. I picked a dealer I wanted to pick the car up at in Frankfurt, near the airport. VW even gave me a list of Hotels near by. Monday morning I was at the dealer when they opened. Did the paper work and drove off the lot with my new Scirocco. Drove into 9 different countries. What a 21 day adventure. Dropped the car off at a hotel near the airport and flew away. 6 weeks later got the call my boat had come in and me and a buddy drove my Baja to Dover, Del and picked it up. That made 10 different countries I drove it in. An adventure of a life time. |
Very cool, was it a Euro or US spec Scirocco?
I'm assuming the lighting, safety stuff was US spec since it was destined for export but I think the powerplant was more powerful for Europe?
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runamoc
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| Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2024 6:59 pm Post subject: Re: US Tourist Delivery Program |
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| Quote: |
| was it a Euro or US spec Scirocco |
US..it came with the quad sealed beam headlights, extended bumpers that 'poked' out, and a funky little funnel where the gas went into the tank. European gas nozzles where for leaded gas and mine was already fitted with the unleaded gas 'hole'. At a French gas station I'm not sure what he said but I know it wasn't nice because he threw the hose on the ground and walked away. I got out and filled it up. Part of getting it back into the US VW drained the tank and fitted a cat. convertor onto the exhaust. I think everything else was how the car came in Europe.
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Daily driver: '69 Baja owned 45 yrs - Plan B: '72 Ghia
Yard Art: 2 Sandrails
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Oops I thought I was familiar with all the brochures in the Archive...thanks Ev.
