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Page 24
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TECHNICAL
America's VW pickup
AN IMPORTANT milestone was reached at Volkswagen's North American factory last week with the first example of a new model which has been designed and built in America.
The new model is the VW pickup, based on the front end of a Golf, with a flat-bed pickup rear end. But the new vehicle is much more than a crude conversion of the saloon-car body. New machine tools at the VW stamping plant in South Charleston are producing a carefully styled and constructed new vehicle, with complete new side panels, from front to rear bumper. This gives a smooth line to the vehicle, a low load bed, and allows the use of double skinned construction in the load area to avoid the exterior skin of the vehicle being dented from the inside by sharp loads.
The pickup section is over six feet long, and can carry an 1100lb payload. However, for longer loads the tailgate can either by lowered flat or removed completely without the use of tools. The VW pickup is the only one in America with frontwheel drive which, says the company. offers tremendous benefits in terms of stability when carrying loads, and for traction when unladen in snow and mud. The vehicle comes with fouror five-speed transmission, and with the option of a diesel engine.
Among the alterations from the standard Golf are a largercapacity fuel tank of 15 gallons, heavy-duty rear suspension with leaf springs, a tubular axle in place of the Golf's independent rear end, and larger rear drum brakes.
The pickup comes in two versions: basic and "LX" with de luxe trim, steel radials, wide wheels, AM/FM radio and quarter lights.
Options for the vehicle include alloy wheels, air conditioning, remote-control mirrors, cargo-bed tie-down rails, sliding rear window and tow hitch with wiring and special instruments. Ten colours and the choice of cloth or vinyl upholstery are offered.
The price of the vehicle has not yet been fixed, but VW executives in North America say that it will be at the top of the price bracket for small pickups.
Although designed by the American VW engineering centre in Warren, Michigan, the pickup is constructed to the same standards as the products of Wolfsburg, and inspection teams from West Germany have been surprised by the plant's ability to meet and exceed the West German standards.