Hello toe1,
that was fast. :) Right after I posted my second clarification, the
numbers started to drop in through my phone. Here we go:
Sice you are specifically asking about this car, you have probably
seen it before. If not, here's a picture of the blue one ('Midnight
Blue'). Nice car! I wish I owned one myself. Actually, I do own a
Golf, II series, built in 1989. But just a standard one, no
convertible. Sorry, losing myself here. :)
http://www.golfgti-planet.de/images/michel1.jpg
I was very surprised when I learned the actual numbers. They're so
low.
Accoring to my contact, VW built the Special Edition "Etienne Aigner"
form February, 1990 till August, 1990 only -- not in 1991 as you
suggested. They only produced for the German market. As you've
mentioned, it came in three different colors. A total of 2951 cars
were built. This divides up into
- "Midnight Blue Pearl Effect": 1201
- "Bordeaux Pearl Effect": 752
- "Mangrove Green Metallic": 998
So the picture above shows us the "most successful" one, if one may
make such a statement with numbers as low as these.
Here's a picture of the bordeaux/burgundy one:
http://www.ozarkautos.com/images/91vw/91vw.htm
I did a little search on the german used cars website Autoscout24.de
(http://www.autoscout24.de), to come up with some current prices. They
list 12 of them, different colors, the average price being more or
less 4000 Euros, which directly translates to $ these days.
Again, the numbers I provided are directly from VW itself. They don't
get any more accurate.
In case there's anything else I can find out for you related to your
question, please do not hesitate to get back to me.
Best regards,
searchbot-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
toe1-ga
on
26 Jun 2002 12:45 PDT
searchbot,
I live in the US, so I am sure these were not just German market cars.
There are plenty in the us and the percentage of them that are
Etienne Aigner's in the 1991 model year (yes, built in 1990 but sold
as 1991 model year) is quite high when looking at those for sale.
Please see http://www.traderonline.com & search for 1991 Cabriolets at
any distance from the 48228 area code. This will bring up many
Cabriolets, and many of them are Etienne Aigner editions. Is it
possible that those numbers you list are just for the German market
that you suggest? I am worried that those numbers are off and may be
a bit low if they don't include those made for the US market (and
others).
Thanks again for the work put into this,
TOE1
|
Clarification of Answer by
searchbot-ga
on
26 Jun 2002 13:08 PDT
Hi toe1,
I'll doublecheck on this and get back to you as soon as I know more.
Thanks,
searchbot-ga
|
Clarification of Answer by
searchbot-ga
on
28 Jun 2002 03:22 PDT
Hello toe1,
Murphy's law is something you can really rely on. I've been trying to
get in touch with my contact at Volkswagen for two days now only to
find out that he's on vacation for three weeks.
I really have to apologize that this happened in the first place. Now
that I look at these numbers, it's obvious to me as well that they are
too low. I simply assumed they were correct as I had stated clearly
what I wanted.
The problem now is that any production numbers that date back more
than 10 years are dug deeply in some archives. Chances that I will
find somebody at VW that goes through the tedious process of
uncovering them other than my contact are somewhat low. So my question
is: would you be willing to wait these 3 weeks in case I can't come up
with the numbers earlier? I'll do my best, of course, but can't
promise anything.
Again, the numbers are there, it might just take some more time. Sorry
again for the big delay.
searchbot
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
toe1-ga
on
12 Jul 2002 07:35 PDT
searchbot,
Yes, I can wait for the answer. Please just don't forget about me!
Thanks,
TOE1
|
Clarification of Answer by
searchbot-ga
on
12 Jul 2002 09:03 PDT
Toe1,
Thank you for your continued patience. I surely won't forget about you
and let you know the numbers as soon as I have them.
Thanks,
searchbot
|
Clarification of Answer by
searchbot-ga
on
23 Jul 2002 14:18 PDT
Hello toe1,
unfortunately, I haven't heard back from my contact yet, it could be
any minute, but as the "active" period of your question is coming to
an end, let me suggest how to proceed so that I'll have a chance to
communicate your long awaited numbers to you in case the question
should indeed expire before I get to post. Please understand that all
described here is only the worst case scenario, but I felt I should
advise you on what to do. This is clearly a limit of the system, but
it is my understanding neither you nor Google are capable of extending
the period the question remains active at this point.
I see the following alternatives:
1. You wait until 7/24 0:00 PDT (or as long as you're willing to stay
up, don't know about your time zone, question expires 7/24 2:46 a.m.
PDT) and request a free repost here:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=refundrequest. Do repost
it then, linking to this question and I will put my answer there.
Note: Just FYI, I will only be paid once this way, this is NOT a
sleazy idea on my part to get more money. :)
2. Provide me with some contact information, e.g. an email address of
yours. As Google recommends not to publish ANY personal information
here, I'd suggest you use a service like http://sneakemail.com. They
provide disposable email adresses. You put this "one time" address
here before the question expires, I send you your data, then you can
delete the sneakemail address again. This way, your privacy will be
maintained.
3. If the above all should fail for whatever reason, e.g. question
expires and neither 1 nor 2 are true, please repost your question on
your own with the lowest possible fee, $2. I will then post my answer
as a clarification of question and you can close the question
afterwards. This way you'll only be charged the listing fee, which is
$0.50.
I understand that this is all is not at all the ideal way of running
through the process of answering a question, but believe me I've tried
anything I could, this direct contact really seems the only way to get
ahold of the numbers. Sorry again for all the hassle.
searchbot-ga
|
Clarification of Answer by
searchbot-ga
on
06 Aug 2002 17:23 PDT
Dear toe1,
it's been a while since we've had contact, but just as you had asked
me to: I haven't forgotten about you. I nevertheless may have some bad
news: VW itself simply doesn't have the numbers anymore. They
obviously are not archived that long. Nevertheless there are three
more leads I am going to follow:
- Somebody at VW is checking whether they still have US market numbers
somewhere. Although this doesn't explicitly answer your question,
those figures may be more of a help to you then only the German
numbers as you are seeking information on the US market.
- They advised me to get in touch with a company called Karmann
(http://www.karmann.de). Those are the people that have been building
Cabriolets for VW for many years now. I'm awaiting an response from
them to see whether they may have data that is more accurate from
these years.
- VW also pointed me towards a museum in Wolfsburg
(http://automuseum.volkswagen.de). I've gotten in touch with them and
they
will see what data they might have available as well.
As you can see, I'm not ready to give up on this yet. You'll hear from
me.
Thanks,
searchbot-ga
|
Clarification of Answer by
searchbot-ga
on
19 Aug 2002 10:16 PDT
Hello again toe1,
some new numbers for you. These are the American market figures:
- "Midnight Blue Pearl Effect": 422
- "Bordeaux Pearl Effect": 399
- "Mangrove Green Metallic": 639
Total: 1460, 809 of which are manual stick shift, 651 automatic.
Comment by a VW employee:
"This cabriolet was not very successful, as "Etienne Aigner" is
nothing like as well known a name in the US as it is in Germany. Plus,
we offered the added 'attraction' of a small horseshoe set into the
driver's seat, high up, so your shoulder rested on it. After the car
had been sitting in the hot sun, that horseshoe became like a branding
iron (the thing cowboys use) - sizzle ..."
Maybe this helps you a little more in estimating the size of the US
market.
The mentioned museum let me know that they didn't have any relevant
numbers on file, answer from Karmann still pending. The above cited
numbers are directly from VW again.
Have a good day,
searchbot
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
toe1-ga
on
28 Aug 2002 03:07 PDT
searchbot,
Nice work! Sorry it took so long to get back to you, but I've been
watching! Please email those Karmann numbers to (toe @ ramvw .com) if
you could, so that I have the final count! I really appreciate all
your work on this... should I go ahead and rate the question now?
TOE1
|
Clarification of Answer by
searchbot-ga
on
28 Aug 2002 06:42 PDT
Hello toe1,
good to see that you're alive. :) To the day, I have not heard from
Karmann, unfortunately. Although I'll try to get in touch with them
again, it may very well be that -- just like VW -- they don't have the
numbers on file anymore. But we'll see. If they do get back to me, I
will post a copy of the numbers here and mail them to you as well. Let
me point out one more thing: there has been some confusion on my part
as to the possibility of adding content to an expired question. As we
can plainly see, this is very well possible, contrary to what I had
posted earlier. So there's actually no need for you to post your email
here anymore. If you want to, you can email answers-editors@google.com
with the question #32253 asking them to remove your clarification
containing personal details. This is just to protect your privacy.
As to your rating question: Generally, you may rate a question anytime
after it has been answered. However, to avoid premature ratings, we as
researchers appreciate the chance of being able to clarify our answer
if the customer is not fully satisfied. So if my failing to provide
the complete numbers had an influence on your rating, I'd recommend to
wait until we both consider the matter closed. If not, go ahead. :)
Best wishes,
searchbot
|
,
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