Move apart Scout. Another previous model title is returning to the U.S. marketplace for 2024: Westfalia. With a newly launched web site, phrase is that the model will probably be searching for retail companions on the RV Dealer Open House, America’s largest RV vendor present.
It opens Sept. 25 in Elkhart, Indiana. It’s anticipated that the model’s deliberate North American van will probably be on show as a pre-production mannequin. The new vans will probably be in-built Ontario, Canada.
While it’s unknown which automobiles Westfalia will supply, the web site exhibits what seems to be a Ram ProMaster, though the corporate has transformed numerous Fiat, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen fashions in Europe in recent times.
Volkswagen made them well-known
When you point out Westfalia, most Americans consider the transformed Volkswagen RVs, the primary of which reached these shores in 1956. It survived the assorted iterations of the Volkswagen bus, together with its blander later variations because the Vanagon and EuroVan. But the German firm was cut up into three companies in 1999, with Westfalia Van Conversion, which manufactured and distributed RV conversions, cut up off from Westfalia Automotive, which produces towing attachments. and the Westfalia Trailer Group, which builds trailers.
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DaimerChrysler acquired 49% share of Westfalia Van Conversion that very same yr, with Daimler Chrysler buying the remainder of the corporate two years later. This led to a lot of RVs based mostly on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, which made it throughout the pond because the Dodge Sprinter Westfalia via 2006 through Airstream sellers. Westfalia remained a completely owned DaimlerChrysler subsidiary till 2011, when it’s acquired by France’s Rapido Group, which owns Canadian camper model Roadtrek.
Current choices
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Currently, Roadtrek provides practically a dozen fashions based mostly on the Ram ProMaster, with the Play Slumber and Zion Slumber sporting Westfalia’s traditional pop-top sleeping lofts. Westfalia additionally provides the Westfalia Columbus in Europe, a mannequin based mostly on the Ram ProMaster’s equivalent cousin, the Fiat Ducato.
The two automobiles have been collectively developed, however have some notable variations, with the utmost payload weight for the Ram ProMaster coming in at 5,145 kilos, together with a most towing weight of 5,100 kilos.
For the Ram ProMaster’s 3.6-liter V6, most gross mixed weight is 11,500 kilos, whereas the Fiat Ducato’s 3.0-liter diesel has a most gross mixed weight of 12,500 kilos. But the Fiat Ducato’s most payload is just 3,472 kilos.
And whereas the Ducato is in-built Italy, the Ram ProMaster is in-built Mexico.
Nevertheless, the return of Westfalia must be welcome information to those that spent their youth roaming America in a single. The love affair is about to be rekindled.
Source: www.thedetroitbureau.com