Fun Facts about the Volkswagen Type 4

The Type 4 was Volkswagen’s attempt at breaking into the midsize car market. However, the car’s production was short-lived, thanks to the Passat’s arrival. The Type 4 still managed to leave an impact on the car market, while also being a unique and interesting car. Here are some facts about it you may not know.

It was designed by Pininfarina

Pininfarina are well known for their work with Ferrari. However, in the 1960s, they worked with many other companies, on all kinds of different cars. Volkswagen was also one of their clients, but the normally designed concept vehicles for them. But since the Type 4 was going to be VW’s new flagship vehicle, they wanted the design to be as good as possible, so asked the much more experienced designers at Pininfarina to design the car.

It introduced many new features on Volkswagens

By the late 1960s, technology had come leaps and bounds from when the Type 3 was launched. This meant the Type 4 had components and features previously not seen on Volkswagen cars. For example, it was the first Volkswagen with unibody construction, where the panels are mounted straight to the chassis, rather than being placed on top of it. It also featured coil springs, MacPherson strut front suspension and a hydraulic clutch.

It was Volkswagen’s last air-cooled engine car sold worldwide

When the Type 4 was launched, Volkswagen had already acquired Audi-NSU and its water-cooled engine. However, it was too late to put the engine in the Type 4, so it was instead launched with the air-cooled engine. VW had initially intended to update the Type 4 and give it a new water-cooled engine, but they instead decided to design a completely new front-engine and more modern saloon car instead, the Passat. This means that the Type 4 remains the Volkswagen’s last air-cooled car sold worldwide, as their last air-cooled car was the Brasilia, which was only available in Brazil and two or three other limited markets.