Re: [T3] Factory A/C question ...

[Simon Glen <simonglen@bigpond.com>]

Shad Laws wrote:

>
>
> There's no such thing as a factory A/C installation.  It was a dealer
> accessory.

Shad,

I beg to differ here.  I have a brochure printed in Germany, issued
by Volkswagen AG and dated June 1972.  It is in German, English,
French and Spanish.  It covers air-conditioning for VW air-cooled
Type1, 2, 3 and 4 vehicles and includes many photos.  Towards the
end it says:

"The VW air conditioners are manufactured by VPC, a subsiduary
company of Volkswagen of America Inc..  Their headquarters are in
Fort Worth in Texas. ... The VW air conditioners are installed in the
Volkswagen factory ... because of this we give you the same warranty
on the VW air conditioner as on the new Volkswagen".

This brochure was given to me by a salesman in Nigeria in West Africa
in 1973.  He was trying to persuade me to order a new VW tax free for
collection at the Wolfsburg factory with air-conditioning and a number
of other options.  If any Type3 listee wishes, I could scan sections of it
(especially parts on the Type3) and E-mail them.

Moreover, from 1973 models, Volkswagen listed air-conditioning
as one of its many factory production-line installed "M-Options"
for Type3s.  It was VW Option M-573.

So, it is clear that air-conditioning was a factory installed option.
However, there is no doubt that many Type3s sold in USA were fitted
with dealer installed air-conditioning.  This would be fine for a
developed country like USA but nobody in their right mind would
expect to get a satisfactory air-conditioning system dealer installed
in countries like Nigeria, Zambia, Papua New Guinea or even
Saudi Arabia.  So, it had to be factory installed at Wolfsburg or
Hanover.

Simon Glen
Toowoomba,  Australia


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