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Jim Adney wrote: > If the oil > embargo of 73 had come a few years earlier things might well have > been different. I don't think that was the only reason for the Type1 and Type3s fate. First, the Type3 had its sentence written, the market knew that the Passat/Dasher was on its way. For the bug, the problem was that VW saturated the market. From the model year 1965 through 1973 VW made 10.366.678 units. And that's the Beetle alone (inc. conv. and KG) That is an average of 1.151.853 cars every year. So as you can see, "everybody" had a Beetle at this time. This is the danger of meeting the demands of the market, VW had nothing to satisfy hungry buyers that wanted something different, until the launch of the Golf/Rabbit. In 1974, the production of the Golf had begun, and Beetle production dropped to 791.053, and it continued to drop. At the same time, Golf/Rabbit sales were climbing rapidly, and VW was saved from bankruptcy. The strange thing is, one should believe VW learnt from this, but no. In the years 1988 to 1991 the production of the Golf reached levels never seen before, and VW met the demands of the market with no problem. So much, that everybody (in Europe) had a Golf, and saw no reason to buy a new one. VW had a very red number at the end of the year 1991... Enter the New Golf 3, and sales picked up again, just to save VW from bankruptcy again. This is my opinion why the air-cooled engines went away. Of course, the exhaust emissions had a big role in the fate of the air-cooled too, but not the definite. Porsche got away with air-coolers far into the 90s. My opinion is that the market turned its back on the beetle, and took the Types 3&4 with them. PerL 73 Square -----------------------------------;eać ------------------------ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list or mailto:help@vwtype3.org