Hi Pete,

One other reason it won't happen: It isn't necessary.

The bus was spawned from the beetle to fill a need. Larger utility
vehicles weren't readily available in the early 1950s, so the project
made sense.

Here and now in 2007 there are plenty of existing models within VWs
own inventory that could address this market without the need for
expensive R&D and retooling. All that is required is the will to
market them.

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
1973/74/77/79 Westfakia "Bob The Tomato
www.pottsfamily.ca
www.busesofthecorn.com

On 28-Sep-07, at 12:22 PM, George Lyle wrote:

On Thu, 27 Sep 2007, Peter T. Owsianowski wrote:

MSNBC says a new VW MiniBus could be spawned from the VW " Up!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20908313/

My feeling is that pigs will fly first.

I like the bit about supplying
"stripped down" versions to developing countries and "tarted up"
versions
to the first world.  I wish they would figure out that some of us
folks in
the first world want their cars without the bells and whistles.

Microcars won't make much impact unless they also come with lower
prices.
When you can buy a roomy Scion xB for the same price as the teeny Smart
ForTwo the choice isn't that difficult.  The difference in economy might
be significant in hyper-gas-taxed Europe, but not in the US.

Personally, if I wanted a 2-seat microcar, I'd get a T-rex:

http://www.go-t-rex.com/
>