VW has no plans for Microbus in N.A.

By Bradford Wernle
Automotive News / January 09, 2005

    
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# Detroit and LA auto show coverage

Volkswagen will introduce nine products in North America during the next 18
months. But missing will be a new Microbus, a vehicle that North American
dealers have long been asking for.

"The Microbus is not coming," said Len Hunt, vice president of sales and
marketing for Volkswagen North America, at the show on Sunday. "If you look
at the concept, it's a hugely emotional vehicle. That's not going away. The
Microbus itself went away."

A version of the Microbus will be sold in Europe, Hunt said. It will be
based on VW's T5 van platform.

VW will continue to introduce vehicles that evoke emotions, "an antidote to
creeping appliance motoring," Hunt said.

In the middle of 2005, VW will introduce a face-lift of another emotional
icon: the New Beetle. At Detroit, VW showed a Beetle-based concept called
the Ragster, described as "half Speedster, half VW ragtop."

You may e-mail Bradford Wernle at bwernle@crain.com

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