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RainierSyncro Samba Member
Joined: February 26, 2013 Posts: 809 Location: Seattle
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 7:30 pm Post subject: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Found this brochure in the closet. It explains the VW Eurosavings Plan where you can fly over, pick up your new VW from one of 4 factories, drive around Europe and drop it off at 14 different cities for shipment back to the US. It is from 1983.
Has anybody done the fly & buy from the factory with their new Vanagon? Like to hear some stories. Since this can fit in a business sized letter, anybody want it?
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Herr Motorspiele Samba Member
Joined: June 11, 2007 Posts: 438
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 8:05 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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The golden era! Wish I could go back in time. |
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Klister Samba Member
Joined: March 06, 2018 Posts: 204 Location: Washington
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 8:10 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Irmela and Heinrick - my van's previous owners, purchased the syncro new in Germany in 1991, drove it around Europe a bit, and then had it shipped to Seattle. I bought it a few years ago when Irmela, 82 yo, was still driving it. It had 91,000 miles on it - they rebuilt the engine to a 2.3 L. |
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Ahwahnee Samba Member
Joined: June 05, 2010 Posts: 9823 Location: Mt Lemmon, AZ
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 8:27 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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My van's first owners (the Beardshears from Noblesville Indiana) also took delivery under this program in June 1984. I bought the Westy from them in March 1990.
Sure, I would very much like to have the brochure to put with all the original paperwork that they saved from the delivery... but of course if there is someone here who is an original owner who took factory delivery then their interest should have precedence. |
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Ahwahnee Samba Member
Joined: June 05, 2010 Posts: 9823 Location: Mt Lemmon, AZ
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 8:35 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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This was what came with my van outlining the 1984 Tourist Delivery program. I sent Everett a copy which he kindly added to the Samba archive.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/1984vanagon_tasp.php
Whatever the fate of your brochure, I hope a copy gets added to the collection here. |
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RainierSyncro Samba Member
Joined: February 26, 2013 Posts: 809 Location: Seattle
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 9:16 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Ahwahnee - PM me your address and I'll mail it off. |
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hans j Samba Member
Joined: May 06, 2006 Posts: 2719 Location: Salt Lake City UT
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 10:46 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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I would imagine Christopher Boltz of http://www.vwpix.org/ would be interested as well if he doesn't already have one. _________________ 1986 Canadian Syncro Westy TDI - 1989 Syncro Single Cab - 2001 Audi S4 - 1981 VW Caddy ABA - 1980 VW Caddy EV - 1973 VW T-181 |
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kamzcab86 Samba Moderator
Joined: July 26, 2008 Posts: 7941 Location: Arizona
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:28 am Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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I'd love a scan, or good photo, of the Rabbit Convertible page(s).🙂
Mom's '84 convertible (car I learned to drive with) was a Tourist Delivery car. Original owner drove it around France for a few months, shipped it to the States where he sold it Mom a few months later. Oddly, it came with an Owner's Manual in French; Mom had to source an English version from a dealer. _________________ ~Kamz
1986 Cabriolet: www.Cabby-Info.com
1990 Vanagon Westfalia: Old Blue's Blog
2016 Golf GTI S
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - 孔子 |
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Abscate Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014 Posts: 22707 Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:11 am Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Over the years , some of these plans were incredible. You could get free airfare, museum tour, a month of free car use, buying at factory invoice and then saving destination charges. All in , it could be $5000 of value, easily _________________ .ssS! |
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vanis13 Samba Member
Joined: August 15, 2010 Posts: 3121 Location: ABQ NM USA.... Except when not
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:03 am Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Long story short (for context I was Born in 1972 in communist Prague, CZ)
A few years before 1980 my first stepdad got asked in Prague for a hotel recommendation by a US couple - a former Polish man Vieseu, who escaped during WW2 and his US wife Patti. Hotels were not very nice under communism and very expensive for foreigners so my stepdad invited them to stay in our apartment.
Turned out every few years they bought a German car, usually a VW, drove it to visit his family in Poland and had the car shipped back to the Chicago area. They visited our house at least one other time if not more on such car-buying/family-visit plans.
In summer of 1980 I'm a little kid excited to go on a road trip to Yugoslavia to visit the Mediterranean Sea. I was super into Jacque Custoe and all things underwater. It was me, my brother, mom, and stepdad.
A bunch of stuff happened for which my mom could have gone to jail for if we ended up back in CZ but we ended up in Western-minded Austria as political refugees.
For a long time afterwards I thought mom had all this arranged with Patty and Vieseu, after all who takes on such a crazy risky trip?, but it was only once in Austria that Mom reached out to them because under communism one could trust no one. Even without her asking they offered to sponsor us for US citizenship!
As an example of what the result could be of saying something not aligned to the communist party line: Mom had a very smart/learned friend - college professor, spoke 13 languages, etc. - who in a pub one evening said something disparaging of communism and ended up in a Siberian Gulag for 6 years.
Without Patty and Vieseu's US sponsorship we would have likely ended up in Canada, Australia, or somewhere else and I am SUPER grateful we ended up in the USofA! I still remember flying over the Statue of Liberty in to New York.
Patty and Vieseu had us at their house for a few months to get settled then got us set up with an apartment and car and jobs for parents. My mom worked hard. In addition to her day job, most days she was to 2 or 3am at her art table working on graphic art freelance work. Less that 6 years later my mom has a new house built in the best public highschool district she could find around Chicago so my brother and I could have a good highschool experience (where we were living before then in the close suburbs of Chicago the gangs and drugs were really bad in the 80s)
So as a 7-year-old, I was bummed we only spent one afternoon at the Mediterranean Sea,I still remember seeing and stepping on my first sea urchin , and I am SUPER grateful to end up in this great country!
Even though I didn't think they ever got a Vanagon on any of their trips .......Thank you VW Eurosavings Plan! _________________ 83.5 Westy with Subaru 2.5, 4 spd manual, center seat, COLD A/C on 134a!, Winter camp heated with an Espar B4 gasoline furnace
www.SuperVanagon.com - some stuff I make |
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4Gears4Tires Samba Member
Joined: October 08, 2018 Posts: 3108 Location: MD
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 6:03 am Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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That's a really cool story. The world is so interconnected. _________________ '87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition |
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jlrftype7 Samba Member
Joined: July 24, 2018 Posts: 3600 Location: Chicago
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:17 am Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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vanis13 wrote: |
Long story short (for context I was Born in 1972 in communist Prague, CZ)
A few years before 1980 my first stepdad got asked in Prague for a hotel recommendation by a US couple - a former Polish man Vieseu, who escaped during WW2 and his US wife Patti. Hotels were not very nice under communism and very expensive for foreigners so my stepdad invited them to stay in our apartment.
Turned out every few years they bought a German car, usually a VW, drove it to visit his family in Poland and had the car shipped back to the Chicago area. They visited our house at least one other time if not more on such car-buying/family-visit plans.
In summer of 1980 I'm a little kid excited to go on a road trip to Yugoslavia to visit the Mediterranean Sea. I was super into Jacque Custoe and all things underwater. It was me, my brother, mom, and stepdad.
A bunch of stuff happened for which my mom could have gone to jail for if we ended up back in CZ but we ended up in Western-minded Austria as political refugees.
For a long time afterwards I thought mom had all this arranged with Patty and Vieseu, after all who takes on such a crazy risky trip?, but it was only once in Austria that Mom reached out to them because under communism one could trust no one. Even without her asking they offered to sponsor us for US citizenship!
As an example of what the result could be of saying something not aligned to the communist party line: Mom had a very smart/learned friend - college professor, spoke 13 languages, etc. - who in a pub one evening said something disparaging of communism and ended up in a Siberian Gulag for 6 years.
Without Patty and Vieseu's US sponsorship we would have likely ended up in Canada, Australia, or somewhere else and I am SUPER grateful we ended up in the USofA! I still remember flying over the Statue of Liberty in to New York.
Patty and Vieseu had us at their house for a few months to get settled then got us set up with an apartment and car and jobs for parents. My mom worked hard. In addition to her day job, most days she was to 2 or 3am at her art table working on graphic art freelance work. Less that 6 years later my mom has a new house built in the best public highschool district she could find around Chicago so my brother and I could have a good highschool experience (where we were living before then in the close suburbs of Chicago the gangs and drugs were really bad in the 80s)
So as a 7-year-old, I was bummed we only spent one afternoon at the Mediterranean Sea,I still remember seeing and stepping on my first sea urchin , and I am SUPER grateful to end up in this great country!
Even though I didn't think they ever got a Vanagon on any of their trips .......Thank you VW Eurosavings Plan! |
Thanks for sharing, love the Chicago connection too. _________________ '68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto |
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jimf909 Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014 Posts: 7499 Location: WA/ID
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:25 am Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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^^^ That's quite a story. Thanks for sharing. My mom's family has a story of slipping out of Lithuania just after WWII. They also went through Austria and landed in Chicago and then the NW suburbs where I grew up so there's some similarity. Others in their family ended up behind the iron curtain for decades.
It's interesting to hear how travel programs as ordinary as picking up a car in a different continent can change lives. _________________ - Jim
Abscate wrote: |
Do not get killed, do not kill others.
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Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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RainierSyncro Samba Member
Joined: February 26, 2013 Posts: 809 Location: Seattle
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:23 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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kamzcab86 wrote: |
I'd love a scan, or good photo, of the Rabbit Convertible page(s) |
Message me with your e-mail and I'll send you a scan. |
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Abscate Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014 Posts: 22707 Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:30 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Thanks for sharing those stories. _________________ .ssS! |
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Van den Broke Samba Member
Joined: May 20, 2012 Posts: 161 Location: Victoria, Canada
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 6:06 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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"Without Patty and Vieseu's US sponsorship we would have likely ended up in Canada, Australia, or somewhere else and I am SUPER grateful we ended up in the USofA!"
My ancestors weren't so lucky so we ended up in Canada. |
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Van den Broke Samba Member
Joined: May 20, 2012 Posts: 161 Location: Victoria, Canada
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:24 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Interesting reading the 1984 Tourist Delivery brochure linked by Ahwahnee.
The vehicles did not have a catalytic convertor installed because unleaded gasoline wasn't available in Europe, but were required to have one installed before being shipped to the US in order to comply with regulations.
Canada was not mentioned in this edict, so possibly there are some Vanagons or other VWs of those years in Canada that never got convertors or the fuel fill restrictor. |
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Abscate Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014 Posts: 22707 Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2024 3:45 am Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Van den Broke wrote: |
"Without Patty and Vieseu's US sponsorship we would have likely ended up in Canada, Australia, or somewhere else and I am SUPER grateful we ended up in the USofA!"
My ancestors weren't so lucky so we ended up in Canada. |
Yeah, you suck. Beautiful country, the Leafs, Tim Hortons, good bacon, and no one hates you in the world because you are civilized. _________________ .ssS! |
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MsTaboo Samba Member
Joined: June 02, 2006 Posts: 4115 Location: East Kootenay, British Columbia
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2024 2:36 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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Quick questions.
Anyone know how the VIN number was handled on these Eurosavings Plan tourist bought Vanagons?
Was the VIN a European ZZZ or one of the North American codes?
Also, were buyers able to get whatever options they wanted or were they limited to those available to NA market buyers?
It sounds (from the above brochure) that you would have been limited to what was offered at the NA dealer sales office. _________________ Currently:
'90 Syncro Westy 3 knob w/Zetec
The information age has morphed into the age of disinformation and willful ignorance. Agnotology!
Help the fight against Truth Decay.
Defend democracy, support Ukraine. |
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Ahwahnee Samba Member
Joined: June 05, 2010 Posts: 9823 Location: Mt Lemmon, AZ
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2024 5:45 pm Post subject: Re: The VW Eurosavings Plan (fly, buy, drive & ship) brochure |
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The VIN on mine looks like a typical US model though interpreting the M Plate shows it was a European delivery.
I doubt you could get anything that wasn't available to the US market. |
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