[OT] Westmoreland products... Re: [OT] FINALLY!

[drew <drew@dyermaker.cs.uoguelph.ca>]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001 VWMikeLVW@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 3/19/01 11:02:21 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
> green536@hotmail.com writes:
> 
> While I can agree with you on some of those points, I have to point out some 
> other things.
> 
> > Ummm.. dont meant harsh anyones gig here but American built VW's are pure 
> > crap. They rattle, 
> 
> The reason most rattle is because no one puts all the screws back in....mine 
> doesn't rattle much at all.

I can't speak for US built Rabbits as I've never had the misfortune to
drive one (although I've parted one and soon will be smashing the remains
into a garbage-can-lid sized pile of rust) but the A2 US built cars among
other things use a  clip-on trim piece around the IC where the German and
Mexican built cars actually use screws...

> How do you figure? What's so different?

Well, for most US built VW's, many parts are pulled from a US bin instead
of a German bin (lights, wiring, aletrnator, dash, IC etc)  The US built
Rabbits were the worst for this  (a push-pull light switch?  Come on...!)

> Um, have you looked at a 70's Rabbit harness lately? The American Rabbit 
> harness is much less troublesome. Electrical gremlins were the plague of the 
> early Rabbits, Sciroccos, Jettas.

The big problem with  Westmoreland wiring is that it is North American.
The guage is AWG, the wire colours are often not the same as German
wiring, and the fuese panel/relay plate and many of the electrical
components were sourced from US parts bins (like Delco etc.) and have
nothing to do with anything else that VW made.  If you've spent half your
life working on German-built VW's, then working on a US built VW is like
getting slapped in the face with a dead fish a few times.

> > and they had the wonderful idea of square (read: SQUARE) 
> > headlights.
> 
> I can't defend that one. I don't know why they went to the square 
> lights...perhaps to make it look more "modern" or something. I know it didn't 
> have anything to do with lighting standards because they contrinued to sell 
> the Cabriolet with round lights. Oh well... I have them, and I'm not really 
> that worried about it. Replaced with H4's, and complimented by clear corners, 
> I think they look fine.

I believe you'll find that the DOT -spec 5x7's were chosen because they
were a cheap, common hi/lo single sealed beam.  The low cost single lense
sealed-beam choices were 7" round (not popular with North American
manufacturers by the early-mid eighties) and 5X7 rectangular.

> > American built VW's are about as good as a Dodge omni with a VW 
> > engine.
> 
> You're kidding right? Those cars were a mess under the hood.

I personally consider US-built VW's to be a good source for some parts,
but otherwise a target for bigotry... :)  I have driven (and subsequently
sold or parted) 85 and 86 Westmoreland Golfs, and did not enjoy either.  
Out of an inventory of two dozen parts VW's, I have only 1 US built
Rabbit, and 1 US built Golf.  Remember that (with the A1 Rabbits, anyways)
that these cars had enough US content to qualify as Domestic cars.  The
Golfs moved away from that a little, but in the end the best thing VW ever
did was pick up production and move it to Puebla (no offense to anyone who
might have lost a Westmoreland job as a result of that.)

Drew (84 Wolfsburg Ed.)
 
Drew MacPherson, Network Analyst, University of Guelph

drew@dyermaker.cs.uoguelph.ca           |  visit the Massey-Harris page:
http://dyermaker.cs.uoguelph.ca/~drew   |  http://m-h.cs.uoguelph.ca


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