How can we get the Polo over here ??

Allvehicles from 1996 and up are OBDII... that's a federal thing. Have you looked at the New Rabbit with a price of about 16K? It's a basic VW.

How is that 5 cylinder engine that are in some of those Rabbits?

I usually find that the 94-98 Jettas are good if you deal with 5 speeds and manual windows. Wiring issues at the doors, or vacuum locks sometimes have problems but not as much if you get a basic Jetta. ;-)

JMHO

I grew up with air cooled 1300, 1500, and 1600 cc VWs. They had brake lines along the tunnel that rusted out. They could drop exhaust valves. The engines tended to need a rebuild after 100,000 miles. Well at minimum new exhaust valves. The valves were supposed to be adjusted at the oil change? The oil change was every 3,000 miles. I opened the windows and I had a breeze of 90 degree air. In the winter driving 35 mph I had a clear windshield after a few miles but no real heat. the

1967 Beetle cast $1700 new. I could carry my Scotty and Cairn terriers in it. I had to adjust the brakes every second oil change.

I have a 2003 Jetta tdi 5 speed wagon. I change the oil every 10,000 miles. I do a timing belt about 100,000 miles. I have AC. I have heat. Sticker of $21,345. I can carry my Lab mutts. Granted I only have

165,000 miles on the car so who knows how reliable the electronics are but I can plug the car in to my laptop to check on a warning light. I could not do that on the first 5 VWs my family or I had. All new cars have electronics and ODB connections. I do not recall hearing anyone complain about VW computer reliablility. Even back in 1981 when Rabbits had computers. Well heck they had them in 1980. Well if you really want to be technical they had computers in 1967 or 1968 when they put fuel injection in the Type 3. Really those cars were pretty reliable. I cannot recall having a computer failure in any car I owned but I tend to own the cars until they wear out. Bodies failing because of rust or telephone poles.

says that the $1700 car should cost $9,365 in 2003. or $10,459 in2007. But wait. My new car has AC, ABS, heat, air bags, well more thantwice the weight, better crash protection, 60% better mileage, fasteracceleration, faster top end, stereo, shoulder harnesses, morecomforatable seating and a sunroof. So if you want a Polo which is indeed probably more like a Beetle then all you need to do is convince VW to bring it over. Maybe the new management team will be open to ideas. Someone gave up on the Phaetom or what ever they called that really expensive car. I don't think the Rabbit is really as low end as the Polo but it is as good as it gets right now. I am happy with my Jetta. I am not a VW nut. I just happen to have continuously owned a vw since 1977. Not many though, just 5. I don't drive a lot. I think I have put 570,000 miles on my VW over the years. Another 350,000 miles on my two Toyota trucks. All of my vehicles have been pretty reliable but I may have a blind eye as I work on my cars.

20 years ago VW did not make the most reliable cars. Toyota and Honda were still obcessed with quality back then and made better cars. Fun cars? CRX was fun. Z28 and Mustang 5L were fun. Z cars were fun. There were lots of cars out there that handled better than a VW and were fun. What was fun was watching the Rabbit Bilstein cup back in the day. Watching Rabbits racing on three wheels. So back to the Polo. Maybe the old management did not want to dip that far down in the US market. Porsche had a saying a while back. The starter Porsche is a used Porsche. Maybe VW will not follow that philosophy. But wait a bit as they are spending 100's of millions moving out of Detroit.

But it has a 2.5 liter, 5 cyl engine that gets barely more than 20mpg city. I need a true economy car and I didn't see one in the VW showroom so I recently bought a Honda Fit.

HM

All I was saying was that I won't buy a VW with OBDII. I am particular to 85-92 anyways. We all know that even some 1994-1995's were OBDII compliant. I maintain my Scirocco myself and want nothing to do with OBDII's and all the wonderful things that come along with it. The new Rabbit is still not what I am looking for. There is no "basic VW" anymore. To many, a VW with a waterpump is not a "basic VW." I don't need airbags that hit me in the temple, and I don't need a 2.5L that likes to drink. My 16V gets better MPG than those mid- sizers. Maybe if they stop adding size and weight to every re-design, VW's could still be in the economy category. There is no way that VW's entry level car should be a mid-size. And we don't need seats that also accomodate 350 lb people.

Well you can keep saying you will not buy a car with ODBII. If you live in the US you will be driving antiques pretty soon as the Federal Law mandates ODBII. I find that driving antiques is not all that jopyous for a daily driver. I started to have a hard time finding parts for my 1967 Beetle. I had a hard time finding parts for my Rabbits. I can find parts for my 2003 because the parts failing are still in production. Yes I did replace the clutch on my alternator. I do have a clutch for the transmission in the garage but it stopped slipping 50,000 miles ago. I guess you can easily find a distributor for your car. You can easily find the computer for engine management. But you can not easily plug in your laptop to pull diagnostic codes.

My airbag does not hit me in the temple. I don't crash and they do not deploy. That said if my 80 Rabbit had the airbags my 2003 Jetta has I probably would not have suffered a concusion when I had a disagreeement with a telephone pole.

My friend says he get 30 mpg out of his 2002 Passat 1.8T with a manual. I get 50 out of my Jetta. Now that I own a newer car I like the idea of better crash test ratings and airbags. I like a quiet car that the Bettles and Rabbits were not.

You don't need seats that accomodate a 350 pound person. Either do I. I do not believe many 350 pound people are very interested in VWs. I do not believe a person that huge would fit well in my Jetta.

So what was the response you got from VW of A when you sent them a letter?

In the age of the internet, if you can't find a part for a car made after 1960, you best brush up on your Googling skills. I can have a newly reman 1.8 16v here tomorrow, if so inclined. VW (and other European manufacturers) are ill-equipped to deal with the needs of the US market, as their electronics are just not on par over the long-haul with the Japanese, American !!!, or even the Koreans. There is a reason VW has lost a lot of customers over the last 10-15 years, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that they try to build Toyotas, but there are several companies who already do it better. BTW, my response my VW dealership's GM (friend of a friend) was anything but encouraging after talking to him last year, but I do not trust that he was a reliable source of direct-from-Europe information. The last response from VW of A said that they were replacing my Scirocco's gas tank for free. Thanks for the concern

Sure you can get an engine or a transmission. Order me a turn signal relay for a 1967 Beetle. Get me driveshafts that fit a 1984 Rbbit. No, not the ones with 100 mm joints, the ones with 90 mm joints. Get me window and door rubber for the Rabbit. If I thought hard I could get a slew of things that I have wanted to replace that were not available at the local scrapper.

So the question was this. What did VW of A say to you when you requested they make sell cars that are not meeting the federal EPA regulations?

Under U.S. law you can privately import just about anything if it's more than 25 years old. Can you wait until then?

The exemption for imports in Canada is 15 years. I know what's involved in some detail, having recently imported a van (not a VW - sorry!) from Japan. Built-like-a-tank 4x4 with a turbo diesel engine. The stereo has a karaoke input. What more could you want? :-)

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Non sequitur. Your ACKS are Grid: CN89mg uncoordinated." ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Nomad the Network Engineer

That sounds cool. How did you find an old vehicle from Japan? I thought I had read that their inspection and parts replacement requirements make old vehicles more expensive than a new vehicle.

Actually that law is under consideration to be changed to 25 years to be in-line with the US law, so if you're in Canada and thinking about doing this, you might want to get on it and do it before the law changes.

What did VW of A say to you when you requested they make sell cars that are not meeting the federal EPA regulations?

They replied, "Willie, we cannot sell such things over here - not cost effective to engineer a US version. But if you'd like, we do have diesels available on the .......... oh, wait, what state do you reside?" Followed by, "Have you checked out the Touareg?"

There is a lot of noise on the subject in some circles here, but it will take the Feds a while to do anything, and there is a major push against such a change from car enthusiasts. The view is that it's protectionist commercial pressure, and nothing to do with anything as mundane as safety.

The Feds can't even decide what the problem is. Is it old cars? Right-hand drive cars (since most of the private imports come from Japan)? Some silly notion that we have to have the same laws as the U.S.? What the hell for?

If they want safety, they should reduce the exemption to bring in newer, safer cars. If they're worried about RHD, maybe they should try it and see just how much of a non-issue it really is. Japan and England have cars both ways around and seem to be OK with it. Not to mention all the postal vans and things that have been trundling around for years.

I got my van (a 1992 Mitsubishi Delica) through a specialist importer

The early '90s aresomething of a sweet spot: undesirable in Japan (too old,Shaken, etc., and they have to pay to scrap them), butdesirable here, and the importers can't bring them acrossthe Pacific fast enough. The majority of imports seemto be Nissan Skylines and, yes, Delicas. You see lotsof other cool stuff running around, everything from HondaBeats to Toyota Soarers to Nissan S-Cargos. For the record, my Delica has *better* visibility than my A2 Jetta. Despite sitting on the right. And parallel parking is ridiculously easy. :-)

25 years isn't not a done deal yet. Not by a long shot!

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Non sequitur. Your ACKS are Grid: CN89mg uncoordinated." ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Nomad the Network Engineer

I hate those answers. I wonder what is different. They have to do crash testing, the interiour has to be safe, they have to do extended emission testing. Are the cars not clean and safe already for the EU market?

What regulations do we have in the US that are so different from EU regulations? I know we have some stupid headlight regulations. Are emissions that different? I see one article that suggest you can pay about $1,000 for a day and half emission test. Then you have bumper and safety standards from DOT. and then 2.5% import duty.

And let me tell you that can add some excitement to your day!

EU and US regulations often differ in minute details. For example, EU emissions focus more on grams per distance travelled and overall efficiency (and therefore lean-burn engines that produce higher NOx levels are OK whereas here in the US they run afoul of our NOx levels). It doesn't mean that a EU car is a polluter...it just means it may not meet one portion of a US test but that still constitutes failure. Same goes for other things like labelling, some lighting regulations, bumpers (although Canada really is the tough guy on bumper regulations and not the US), etc. EU cars are hardly unsafe but a car just has to fail to meet US regulations in one area and the manufacturer has to evaluate whether or not it's worth redesigning the component.

Honestly, how is the visibility when passing on a two-lane highway? With a RHD vehicle in a RHT world you may have to scoot farther left and possibly a little out of your lane to see if it is safe to use the oncoming lane for passing. Same can be said for unprotected left turns if there is another car facing you waiting to make a left...you'll have a harder time seeing around him to see if there's oncoming traffic.

Yes it did. On a 1966 with a single master cylinder it is very exciting. Not as much drama on a 1967 with dual master cylinder.

It is sort of ironic that the green movement in the EU is not as ant-diesel as they are in the US. Well at least that is my perception.