westfalia nugget ford transit westfalia is the designation of various specially converted volkswagen camper vans . it is named after westfalia werke the contractor that built the vans which is headquartered in the town of rheda wiedenbr ck located in the westphalia region of germany . westfalia werke also converted non volkswagen vans and produced trailers and other products but they were best known for their volkswagen camper conversions . westfalia began converting volkswagen buses in 1951 . their famous pop top package was added later and became very popular on the second generation vw bus from 1968 to 1979 its successor the vanagon the sven hedin and florida conversions on the volkswagen lt and then the t4 eurovan which was discontinued in 2003 . this design also inspired many imitators with dozens of other companies worldwide offering pop top van conversions . therefore not all pop top volkswagens are westfalia conversions although in the united states the westfalia conversion was by far the most common . conversely not all volkswagen westfalia conversions had pop tops or cooking facilities . volkswagen offered a weekender package in the 1970s with a westfalia interior but no pop top . later some vanagon conversions were offered with a pop top and interior table but lacked cooking facilities and instead included a luggable 12 volt refrigerator . in 1999 daimlerchrysler purchased a 49 % stake in westfalia werke s van conversion division and in 2001 absorbed the remaining 51 % . of course since daimlerchrysler is a volkswagen competitor this spelled the end of the volkswagen westfalia partnership . while volkswagen still offers pop top camper conversions in europe they now do have another supplier to do the conversions . meanwhile westfalia now makes high roof rather than pop top factory camper conversions for mercedes vans distributed in the united states by airstream and badged as dodge sprinters . they also provide automotive accessories to bmw including trailer hitches . in 2008 a management buyout occurred and westfalia van conversion is now an independent entity . it still converts some vehicles for major car manufacturers to sell through their own networks such as the ford nugget but also markets conversions through its own network of recreational vehicle dealers . these models include the ford based big nugget volkswagen based sven hedin and the michelangelo . the michelangelo vehicle uses a fiat scudo chassis and is designed to be a major competitor to the volkswagen california . on 28 january 2010 westfalia werke filed for bankruptcy citing a 40 percent drop in sales . according to the filing they would like to keep doing business while they restructure . citation needed external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to westfalia vehicles . official website dutch nugget register unofficial dutch web site of nugget owners nuggetforum.de unofficial german westfalia nugget community coordinates 51 50 42.15 n 8 18 28.61 e 51.8450417 n 8.3079472 e 51.8450417 ; 8.3079472 this article about a classic post war automobile produced between 1945 and 1975 is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title westfalia & oldid 676695844 categories recreational vehicle manufacturersvolkswagen vehiclesclassic post war auto stubshidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from april 2010commons category with local link same as on wikidatacoordinates on wikidataall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschfran aisnederlandssvenska edit links this page was last modified on 18 august 2015 at 16 04 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view