After 53 years of production in Brazil, the end of the road for the last of the classic VW Bus/Transporters (T2) is in sight. Since the T2 Kombi can’t meet safety regulations that come into effect beginning with the new year, here’s your last chance to buy a new one and bring it home with you, if you just really have to have one.
The curious thing about the Brazilian-built Kombi is that it was never quite exactly the same as the German one. The earliest version (above) had different passenger doors: two separate front-hinged doors instead of the usual barn-door arrangement. Presumably that gave better access to the two full row of seats in the high density eight-nine passenger version undoubtedly favored there.
And then for decades, the definitive Brazilian bus had the front end of the post-1968 German bus (T2) married to the back three-fourths of the original bus T1), with its many “Samba” windows, resulting in what is best called a T1.5.It was probably an expedient thing to do, like so many things VW in Brazil. It does go to show that the T1 and T2 bodies were of very similar basic size in order to match up like that.
Eventually, the Brazilian Kombi got the full T2 body, most likely after German production ended. Of course, the old air cooled motor is long gone, replaced by a multi-fuel (alcohol or gasoline) water-cooled 1.4 liter four. But its output is still deeply in 1968 territory: 78 hp, at a low 4800 rpm. That’s not much more than the old boxers of yore.
There it is, nestled in it little compartment, but now accessible from the top, not via the back hatch like buses I remember so well. All things must end, even the classic VW Bus.
Type 2 German Kombis had top hatch access to the engine from when the suitcase engine was installed only the upright engined vans didnt feature that.
The older Brazillian vans have double doors on the sides same as early type 2 no slider and no high mounted air intakes on the rear pillars they really did just slap a bay window front on a 56 and they rust like theres no tomorow unlike the German/Australian vans
I had no idea until the last few days that these were still being made somewhere in the world.
Yep I learnt they were still in production right here, suddenly were covering current vehicles. Noooooooooo.
Now how long before Hindustan in India, drop the Ambassador, derived from the Morris Oxford III will face the end of the road?
Well they have the Hindustan Contessa which is a Holden Torana/Vauxhall Victor with Isuzu diesel power to fall back on
I had one of these for about half a year (like the one in the third picture, in blue and white). It was an ’89 model, with all that T1-windows and back doors. The picture (refernce) shows the right side double-door and the T1-similar back door.
In most terms, the brazilian T2 cannot be compared to its original brother. Quality problems all around, really. REALLY.
One time, shifting to 1st gear, I found myself holding the 2ft long stick shift in my hand. It was a material failure!
Out of fairness, the stick shift ejection used to happen to my grandmother’s late-60’s buses as well.
What do you mean with ejection? In my case it just broke in two pieces, and that steel looked almost like cast iron to me…
In Mexico back in the early ’90’s, my wife and I rode in an identical blue Kombi taxi with the front grille. Did they build these in Mexico as well, or were they just from VW do Brasil?
There were mexican water cooled T2s in the nineties too. I didn’t think about this before, but could it be that in Brazil, the upgrade from the air cooled T1-T2 to the water cooled T2 with sliding door was with the old mexican tooling?
They were actually made in Brazil for export, but deemed too expensive for the local market. There was virtually no competition in Brazil until the arrival of Korean vans in the ’90s, so why would VW even bother to update the Kombi?
That’s actually 63 years (or 64, if you count the scheduled end of production in December)!
I was referring to 53 years production in Brazil.
Always thought these were very cool as a kid, but as an adult I could not buy a vehicle that utilizes shins for bumper bracing.
What safety regs finally killed it? Brazilian safety regs in 2013 must be awfully close to where the U.S. was in 1966.
That van lacks 1968 required side marker lights, let alone crashworthiness of any sort.
My 68 VW van hit a Valiant hard in the rear the Val was mashed in enough it couldnt be driven an hour with jack and hammers had the VW driving fine but the passenger L/F was jammed shut, VW vans are far stronger than you think.
There’s an elegy for the Kombi in today’s NY Times.
I asked Gilberto dos Santos, a Volkswagen spokesman, why it has done so well. “Because it’s enough,” he said. Enough: Such a gorgeous, forgotten concept in the age of ultra-sophistication, ultra-excess and packaged ultra-experience. The Kombi is spare to the point of minimalism.
i recently bought a 1957 Kombi, with a hanging radiator in front, and its looking very urgly – i saw one of you pictures with a plastic mould black grill infront can somebody help me find where to buy-it. i cant find places in my country SA? – any iformation or website, which could help?
Kombi in Brazil made the full transition to T2 in 1997/1998. also at the same time moved from carburators to multipoint F.I.
The watercooled face was used in the 80’s Diesel (which was plagued with overheating issues) and for exportation only 1.8 watercooled.
VW went after the old tooling used for stamping, bought back from aftermarket suppliers and restored and started putting out these Kombis in 2006.
this report below lists all the differences between aircooled/watercooled, it’s translated by google
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=pt-BR&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fquatrorodas.abril.com.br%2Fcarros%2Ftestes%2Fconteudo_140820.shtml&edit-text=&act=url
That split with front-hinged doors was a special version aiming to the share-taxi market, available with the T2b bay-window bodystyle too, but the mainstream versions had the barn-door arrangement until ’97.