Last Call: Rocking the Westies Edition

VW Westy
The Volkswagen Van has long served as a home away from home in camper form, the ultimate expression being the Westfalia pop-top. Going that one better, this Type 2/Vanagon mashup may just be the ultimate’s ultimate.
Last Call indicates the end of Hooniverse’s broadcast day. It’s meant to be an open forum for anyone and anything. Thread jacking is not only accepted, it’s encouraged. 
Image: TheSamba

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12 responses to “Last Call: Rocking the Westies Edition”

  1. dead_elvis Avatar
    dead_elvis

    Fantastic! That Vanagon body needs to sit just a little lower, so the white/blue break lines up with that of the cab.

    1. Batshitbox Avatar
      Batshitbox

      This way it kind of looks more like a beetle than the Beetle did.
      https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Alder_leaf_beetle_from_the_High_Tatras_(7663242448).jpg

  2. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    What do you guys think – would it make sense for VW’s “cheap and conservative”-division Škoda to return to frugal Canada? The Rapid can rival the Civic, the Superb wagon would be an outstanding offering for families, and the Yeti is an outdoorsy can-do.
    http://www.showroominfo.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/skoda-car.jpg

    1. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

      I wonder where the Bigfoot name stands today, in legal terms? A Ford Bigfoot seems like a cool idea.

      1. mdharrell Avatar

        A company called Northwest ATV produced the Ford Courier Sasquatch. Pete Peterson has one.
        http://www.darkforestcreature.com/Courier/Sasquatchtrifoldbrochure.pdf

    2. Maymar Avatar
      Maymar

      I think Skoda could do reasonably well in the Canadian market (especially Quebec), bit I think retailing would be the real hurdle they’d struggle with – convincing dealers to take on a new, relatively unknown lineup.
      Currently,the VW Jetta is priced starting at about $15k, which is right around the Civic’s entry point. The Jetta’s big failing point has been the 2.slow being your only engine choice until you’re spending over 20k. It was fine as a stripper Quebec special, but the next model up just wasn’t quite competitive. They’re bringing over the 1.4T for 2016, and not touching the pricing much – that might help the Jetta be quite a bit more competitive. Now, I’d also like to see the Golf get the 1.4 for the base model, and the Polo and Amarok come over, and they really need better and cheaper small crossovers than the Tiguan ASAP, but I think they can grow and meet our needs without bringing over a second brand.
      And, they have been growing consistently for the past decade, although 70k units for the entire brand (2015, a peak year) still isn’t huge, when the entire market was close to 1.9 million

      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        Do you think the name Skoda would evoke some sort of nostalgia from the seven years the brand was sold in the country? Probably a host of negative associations? 🙂 I would be in doubt whether they could manage to sell cars at such low prices at all, so it might not be feasable. I’m also surprised how few cars VW sells – is any European make doing well in Canada?

        1. Maymar Avatar
          Maymar

          I imagine the very, very small subset of the population that remembers Skoda are probably already driving MkIV Jetta TDIs. There’s probably more association from people who’ve ridding in them as overseas taxis.
          VW’s easily the strongest European marque in Canada, but at the same time, everything else is luxury brands except Fiat, and they’ve got a very limited lineup. Benz, BMW, and Audi do fine in the larger cities where there’s money, but that still only amounts to 30-40k cars per year each. VW’s biggest limitation is that although they do fine with C-segment stuff (if the Golf and Jetta were folded into one nameplate, their combined 47k sold in 2015 would push them into the top 10 sold overall), they really have nothing else. Pickups and small crossovers are the other two really strong segments, where they’ve got nothing in one, and in the other, the Tiguan is dated and kind of pricey.
          To put things in perspective though, one out of every four new vehicles sold in Canada last year was one of the domestic’s full-sized trucks.

    3. Guest Avatar
      Guest

      Definitely! We need some more obscure (to North America) cars here!

      Also, I love cars that Canadians got/get that Americans didn’t/don’t, even if it was just a special edition, rebadge.

  3. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    In a very tire-kicker kind of way, whenever I’m presented with some automobile that is so over-the-top that I have to take it down a peg, a little Jake Blues pops into my head and dismisses the vehicle with a casual comment, “Fix the cigarette lighter.” I’m always so sure there’s some flaw in there I can carp on, I never see the forest for the trees. Jake was kind of an asshole, in that respect.

  4. Van_Sarockin Avatar
    Van_Sarockin

    They should bring it over as a special model, a diesel Coal Rolling special. They’d sell a million.

  5. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Ford driver got stuck on an icy railway crossing and managed to escape a crossing train that…wasn’t stuck:
    http://s21.postimg.org/y5ne0gf2v/Sca_RCVZ0cd_Rb_EDV_Jme7lgsk_Aj_QVdyc_Iizou_s_SYz_CWw.jpg
    Incredible forces!