Every good idea has its time in the sun, but the trick is to get out of it before skin cancer appears. The rear engine configuration was once a sensation, especially in the form of the ground-breaking and wind-splitting Tatra 77 in 1934. Ferdinand Porsche adopted it as his own for his various VW prototypes that led to the seminal Beetle of 1938. But by the late sixties, the Europeans’ interest was rapidly shifting to FWD. Not VW. Quite lost and confused amidst all the excitement about FWD, and becoming dangerously conservative, VW developed and built what would be the final blowout of the rear-engined sedan: the 411/412. It has been referred to as VW’s Edsel; for good reason.
To get a little history and perspective on the 411/412, one only needs to look at…the 311 (above). A prototype (EA 142) designed to replace the Type 3 (1500/1600), it was, for conservative VW, a relatively big step. The 311 had a unitized body, instead of the platform frame of the Beetle and Type 3. And it was styled with the help of Pininfarina. But VW chickened out, and instead just grafted a longer nose on the cramped and obsolete Type 3. But having come this far, and needing a bigger sedan to compete against the very popular Opel Rekord, the basic design was blown up a bit and became the the 411.
Well, at least it did have four doors, which alone was revolutionary for a VW. That gave rise to a popular saying about the 411′s name: four doors, eleven years too late.
Starting out with only 68 hp didn’t help either; the following year a somewhat more potent 80 hp fuel injected engine came along. But even that was modest, for a car that was exactly the size and weight of the Corvair, which had a much larger six cylinder engine. For whatever reason, the 411/412 didn’t make it to the US until 1971, two years after the Corvair’s demise, to take up the banner for the genre.
Even if the 411 was conservative for European standards, it did introduce a host of new design/build elements to VW. The unitized body, MacPherson strut front suspension, non-swing axle rear suspension, automatic transmission and disc brakes came out of the 311/411 development, and soon showed up in other VW products, with varying degrees of success. But after Fiat’s brilliant 128 appeared in 1969, the template for modern FWD cars was set, and VW efforts really all amounted to rearranging the Titanic’s deck chairs.
The 412 appeared in 1972, with a revised nose and a slightly bigger 1.8 L engine. Not that it really made any difference. The 412′s reputation for being underpowered and thirsty was now cemented in the public’s mind. And the sales numbers confirmed it: In its six year run, VW managed to sell a total of 368k of them globally, of which only 117k went to the US. This is during a time when VW was used to selling almost a half-million Beetles to eager Americans annually.
Like the smaller squareback, the Variant/Wagon was by far the most successful 411/412 version, functionally and aesthetically. The very low and flat engine meant that there was a considerable amount of room above it in the rear. And then there was still that fairly decent sized trunk up front. And the rear engine gave it superb traction, of course. The fact that the sedans didn’t have a hatchback made its configuration less versatile.
Now if only VW had made a four-door wagon version, it would have been a true successor to the remarkable but equally unloved Corvair wagon.
If you’ve noticed that the sedan I shot seems to be sitting nose high, you’re right. It is, by design: In typical Germanic fashion, VW wanted to make sure the 411 had plenty of front luggage capacity (weight wise) to counter any critics. It’s rated for 220kg (almost 500 lbs), hence the big springs. The owner of the wagon above did what many 411/412 owners do: cut down the front spring and have that nose be pointing back at the earth instead of the sun.
The 411/412 shares quite a bit in common with the VW/Porsche 914, Ironically, I find the 914 a much more successful concept than the 411/412, and I’ll do a CC on one soon. But what would have been interesting is a 911-powered 411/412, to take up the rear-engined battle where the Corvair Corsa left off. Then the 411 name would have had some real meaning.
Very rare cars in this part of the world other than Beetles and Kombis VW never made much of mark here and by the late 60s were well overpriced for what you got
Is there a decade that was worse for cars than the seventies? It’s as if every car manufacturer decided to build really bad (if not the worst) car(s) they ever built during that timeframe.
Even the abysmal quality and chrome excesses of the late fifties can’t hold a candle to what crawled out from under rocks during the ‘me’ decade.
The seventies was more a “best of times, worst of times”. While the 411/412 was a worst for VW, it was also the era of the Golf, Scirocco, and Passat which were all successful. I think the seventies was a time that tested manufacturer’s creativity. On the one hand you did have a a lot of poorly done responses with strangled engines and heavy bumpers like most of Detroit, and the rubber bumper MG. On the other hand the seventies was also the beginning of some very successful cars like the Honda Accord, the Volvo 240 the Mercedes W123, and even the GM B bodies and Ford Panthers emerged from the crucibles of EPA and CAFE.
I love the shot of the orange wagon. Very appropriate to have an Edsel in the background! One of my uncles had a silver 411 that he bought new. It was an absolute dog, and IIRC, the motor gave up the ghost with less than 70,000 miles on the clock.
It was the basic up-until-that-point VW package, taken to, and beyond, its logical end.
Seems every car company does this. Chrysler with its K derivatives. Ford with its Fox platforms…before that, the Pinto chassis ludicrously made into a Mustang; and before even THAT, the Falcon chassis, with its 20-year run as Maverick, Mustang, Granada.
This was VW up until that time. The Beetle’s time had come and was passing; and the company, not created in the normal way – a company organized around a preexisting product, put together for government and economic expediency…this untested company had to do what it never had done. Develop a new product for a changing market.
Just as Chrysler’s purchase of Franco-American Motors saved it with an influx of ideas and talent, so, too, apparently, did VW save itself by purchasing NSU. And they obviously knew it, too, as from that point the race was on to develop experience in FWD and water-cooled engines.
As for the Type 4s: Used to be a fair number of them around here, in the various places I’ve lived along Lake Erie. They didn’t last long, however; the front fenders tended to develop huge holes above the wheels and the doors split open from rust.
As with other issues that came of transplanting a car from one market to another, the problem came from VW’s non-experience with road melting agents in their own market. It seems they did learn; not as fast as Japanese makers who identified the need right off; but faster than the contemptuous American firms who enjoyed the planned obsolescence.
Of course, VW being owned and financed by the West German Empire using money they didn’t have to pay in war reparations (unlike, say, Britain which `won’ the war but still has to pay off debts) due to the Cold War meant that it wasn’t really in any danger at all, what with being a scion of post-War German Industry. State-owned enterprise at its best, and responsible for destroying a host of original German volume manufacturers’ market. I sometimes wonder which side of the Wall were the communists on.
Maybe we’ll see better competition now, as the US has a Government Motors Corporation of its own.
@Car Counter:
From Wikipedia: “After World War II, both West Germany and East Germany were obliged to pay war reparations to the Allied governments, according to the Potsdam Conference. Other Axis nations were obliged to pay war reparations according to the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947.
Though these reparations exceeded aid from the Marshall Plan, West Germany managed to pay them, in the meantime developing a strong economy (Wirtschaftswunder). East Germany had more harsh payment, but still managed to rise as an industrial power.”
They most certainly did pay the reparations. I can remember my father commenting that (West) Germany paid reparations and was the only (former Axis) country to pay them in full.
The State of Lower Saxony has about a 13% share of VW as of last year, and never held more that 20%, due to German laws. For comparison, the US government currently has about a 26% equity in GM. Neither one is state-run.
You may not like VW or Germans, but get the facts straight.
Does any other car wear the 5 mph bumpers more awkwardly?
Peugeot 504 1975-1980
MGB 1975-1980
MG Midget 1975-1979
Porsche 911….
The U.S. market Datsun 710 (Violet in other countries) . . . they tried to ‘extend’ the other market curved bumpers and it was ugly and awkward to say the least. After ’75, they used the typical battering rams.
’74 and on Fiats in the U.S.; ’70′s U.S. Mazda products, the aforementioned U.S. market MG’s, but Mike Tippett left off the battering rams of the Peugot 604.
U.S. market BMW’s through 1991 and, of course, ’74-’80 Mercedes S classes and the SL’s.
Any BMW…
The Pinto’s rear shelf comes to mind.
This one is actually for sale on Ebay right now. Act now to own your piece of VW’s (questionable) history. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Goldie-Volkwagen-412-1974-Two-Door-Manual-transmission-/140824230547?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item20c9c73a93#ht_500wt_1183
At least the 411 is pretty (in my eyes that is).
In retrospective, it looks like a cross between a Saab 99/900 and a Corvair.
For some reason, I’ve always liked these. When I was ten or so, there was a blue 4-door sitting in a driveway facing the alley a couple blocks from my house. It was pretty weathered and looked like it hadn’t moved in years. No idea if it was a 411 or 412 as you couldn’t see the nose, and I don’t remember what the rear emblem said.
That non-running sedan is the only one I’ve ever seen in person, and that was over twenty years ago.
The 412′s taillight clusters are mounted higher than the 411′s.
Why go to all the trouble of cutting the front springs down? My father achieved the same result in his Type 3 with a much more elegant, simple solution. He put two 50-pound sacks of concrete in the front luggage compartment. His goal was to make the car feel more solid on the road, but I’m sure it would have worked just as well to lower the front end of a 412 (but not if you wanted to carry a lot of luggage). Mileage would suffer, but then, as you say, it wasn’t that good to begin with.
Wasn’t this the inspiration for the GM X-car Citation, only with the engine and drive wheels on the other end? If so, it would seem the design imitation was a little ‘too’ good.
Volkswagen had to be in a tough spot; every platform based on the Beetle with it’s 1930′s technology. Time, tightening emission standards, the rise of BMW with it’s 2002 had to have Heinz Nordhoff, the man who helped save VW after the war, desperate to escape the shadow of the Beetle and attempt to move VW upscale. It’s funny, people ask me all the time if my New Beetle TDI has the engine in the rear…….that funny looking people’s car cast a long shadow indeed! It wasn’t until the Rabbit and Scirocco did people realize there was no going back to the rear engined air cooled Beetle. The 411 was a kind of bridge in getting there.
Looking forward to the Porsche 914 write up Paul!
Well, never had a 411/412, but I did have a 1968 type 3 fastback “mit einspritz.” It replaced a ’67 beetle when I was in Germany. Bought it there new for about $1,800 (!!!), including an am.mw.sw radio. I enjoyed driving it, but it expired on an icy road in Colorado the next year; fortunately, I did not. The 411/412 just didn’t have enough redeeming features.
Does anyone remember the Mike Jitlov stop-motion animation commercial made for the 411. To drive home the point of a “big Volkswagen” they had King Kong in the car.
I do. Enough that my Dad was interested and so it was off to Leon C. Felton VW in San Rafael. We all rode in a yellow with black vinyl seated VW 411. Automatic. Slug slow. Pop was not impressed and said “no thanks” although he did look interestingly at an orange fastback . . . .
Us kids wanted him to take home a bug as a seconod car.
I actually have that as part of a 1000 TV Commericals DVD package that I picked up at Borders (RIP) for about $5, which also includes a promo film about the Corvair being road tested and the ’57 Chevy truck line running the Al-Can Highway.
My first CC comment. The technique was called Animato. He did a demonstration video set to the song “I Know a Place” by Petula Clark.
My 412, Bella, was one of the worst cars I ever owned- this was back in 1996. It had a D-jetronic injection system, and the 412 used no less than 13 different ‘computer’ (probably with reel-to-reel technology) in 1974 alone. Mine would occasionally stall and couldn’t be started for anything- until it changed its mind and would run perfectly. The battery was also under the DRIVERS seat- so a battery explosion would cause damage to the more vulnerable parts of the anatomy when leaning over to start it. I later found the problem with mine is that the vulnerable electrics were under the rear seat, where a careless friend had dumped a daquiri from the drive thru daquiri stand. What’s more, VW filled all of the unprimered box sections with expanding foam, resulting in terminal and unfixable rust in the strangest of places.
- oh, and changing the rear right spark plug required removing the engine, hence a misfire.
Yet, it had a cavernous cargo area and a front trunk capable of holding 4 tyres on wheels!
To think that Chevrolet did the same thing with the Lakewood in 1961, and even added rear doors shows just how outdated this thing was when it debuted. Plus, the Corvair didn’t need a computer and had engine access better than almost any other car, foreign or domestic.
Mercedes was bragging in 2001 that the new W203 C Class had expanding foam in the box sections to quell noise. Umm, OK.
But that’s the C class. Formerly with “Baby S” styling, you could see where they did (and still do) really cut corners to make it come in at a price point. To get today’s Mercedes C reasonably equipped, one has to opt for the “luxury edition” – and then the price hits the mid 40′s. Might as well go up to an “E”. . . (or 5 series Bimmer) . . . .
Being a die-hard aircooled Volkswagen enthusiast, I can tell you that these cars get very little love from VWers today. Don’t get me wrong, as with just about every car out there, there are a select few who love them but they are a small number. They are a very rare sight at VW shows.
I’ve had the opportunity to drive one a friend owned a few years ago. While I did find it
enjoyable to drive (aside from the automatic) it was not nearly enough to make me seriously want one. It’s just an awkward looking car.
I’ll stick with my Beetle and Bus.
As a regular reader of Auto, Motor und Sport at the time, I followed the K70 towards its introduction closely. Looking back, it was probably the most modern sedan of its time, and it obviously had some of the competition, including VW, sweating. The ams-issue where the final, production ready model was introduced over several pages (which I have googled to be the March 1969 issue) had a note stuck in, simply saying “Der K70 kommt nicht”.
VW sat on it for about a year before it was re-released as a VW. Apparently all quality problems were not yet ironed out, and it never became a runaway success.
Oh Peggy and your silver 412.
I drove it a couple of times, being used to beetles and Mk1 Golf, it felt like a bigger and softer car. I was intrigued, but maybe that was due to Peggy
alistair
I”m VW crazy and bought my 10th one in 2010.
I owned the 411 and 412 also the Passat Estate, and still have two set of suitcases made for the boots. (One brown, the other blue)
Of all these vehicles, only the 412 gave trouble. It failed to start a week after driving out the showroom. I first thought it was due to the fuel injection.
It started if I rocked it a bit. Took the workshops two weeks to discover that the earth wire inside the chassis had a loose bolt. They had to hack it open from the bottom.
I am obsessed with these cars, especially the 412. The coupe w/4 spd. Manual is the one to have and I have four of just those. The original stance and wheels are incredibly dorky and should be ditched immediately. Nose way down, big Porsche wheels!
Well I have three of these unloved VWs, and I love them. I’ve had five of them in total, since 1984. Pictured here are two of them, both 1974 412s. I also have a 1971 411 wagon. All three are in great condition – but it is a hobby/passsion to keep them that way!
Can’t say I love them, but have a soft spot for “orphans”. Can you imagine one of these with a Jake Raby Type 4 engine ? http://www.aircooledtechnology.com/
That would be an awesome sleeper car.
Currently driving a 1993 VW Passat Diesel (1.9 l AAZ engine, Canada only)
Here’s the 412 I used when I took up surfing in 1974: