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Guilty Pleasure: Volkswagen Type 4

Murilee Martin

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Once pushed an Opel Manta 50 miles using a '63 Impala wagon with tires tied to the front bumper More

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1,734 views Sep 21, 2011

Volkswagen 411

Would you believe that I've done 23 Guilty Pleasures posts and haven't included a single Volkswagen? Mostly, this is because the VWs I like tend to be mainstream cool (e.g. Type 34 Karmann Ghia, Phaeton, Thing), but there's one that will make even the most frighteningly obsessed Volkswagen fanatic edge away in horror: the 411/412.

Volkswagen 412

I'm old enough to remember these things on the street. More accurately, I'm old enough to remember seeing Type 4s broken down on the side of the highway. These were profoundly terrible cars, so terrible that they made the early water-cooled VWs seem futuristic. And yet... there's something about these cars that I like.

Volkswagen 411

Maybe it's the desperate, let's-squeeze-a-few-more-years-out-of-Ledwinka's-ripped-off-design air about this vehicle, or maybe it's the vaguely Warsaw Pact-ish body lines. Yes, I know the Type 4 would overheat going 15 MPH in Antarctica, and that it would find a way to rust on the Moon. So what?

Volkswagen 412

Really, it's not as horrible as the Vanagon Syncro, and that overpriced heap has thousands of devoted fans. I've only seen one Type 4 that could move under its own power in the last 15 years, but that means there must be a few for sale.