Cali's in California!!

[cayman57]

Hi everyone
At present I am touring the USA in a motorhome, it's big, ugly and thirsty (8mpg). However my reason for writing this topic is this, there are many T25 campers which are called the "vanagon" and there are T4 campers called the "eurovan" but there are no T5 vehicles at all, not campers or commercial. I can't understand why as they've been producing the T5 since 2003 but nothing over here, can anybody shed any light on this.
Simon

 

[James]

Hi everyone
At present I am touring the USA in a motorhome, it's big, ugly and thirsty (8mpg). However my reason for writing this topic is this, there are many T25 campers which are called the "vanagon" and there are T4 campers called the "eurovan" but there are no T5 vehicles at all, not campers or commercial. I can't understand why as they've been producing the T5 since 2003 but nothing over here, can anybody shed any light on this.
Simon

It's to do with import tax - the chicken tax - I don't really understand it.

Vanagons nice - (I've owned one) Combination of van and wagon - see what VW did there
Eurovans also nice - 2.8 V6 engine I believe????

James

 

[Pineweasel]

Chicken tax summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen ... hicken_Tax

 

[Ewan]

I looked into this. I wasn't convinced by the 'chicken tax' argument (why were so many VW buses imported prior to the 1990s then ?) but it does seem that the price of VW Californias ($66,000+) plus around 25% import taxes is the main reason why VW doesn't import them. You can buy a lot more for the same money (ie an RV) in the States and perhaps consumer tastes for larger vehicles also have something to do with it.

I contacted VW in the States who confirmed that cost it the key issue and that they have no plans to import the Cali anytime soon. More here: http://wildaboutscotland.com/2013/01/31 ... n-the-usa/. A shame really, since this blog post is read by prospective Cali owners in the US every single day ...

 

[James]

I looked into this. I wasn't convinced by the 'chicken tax' argument (why were so many VW buses imported prior to the 1990s then ?) but it does seem that the price of VW Californias ($66,000+) plus around 25% import taxes is the main reason why VW doesn't import them. You can buy a lot more for the same money (ie an RV) in the States and perhaps consumer tastes for larger vehicles also have something to do with it.

I contacted VW in the States who confirmed that cost it the key issue and that they have no plans to import the Cali anytime soon. More here: http://wildaboutscotland.com/2013/01/31 ... n-the-usa/. A shame really, since this blog post is read by prospective Cali owners in the US every single day ...

The last VW Vans were imported 2003 - Eurovans. I don't know about the chicken tax, I understand Fiat/Pug vans are sold by Chrysler in the US - possibly to get round this problem

http://www.allpar.com/cars/adopted/fiat/vans.html

Interestingly what VW have suggested is marketing a nice/retro microbus for the US. The microbus concept has always been whats sold - there were no T25 commercial vans in the US - they were all microbuses or campers and I believe it was the same for the T4/Eurovan - in fact I think the last commercial vans in the US were the T2's

That;s why US T25's were Vanagons - different concept



James