One of our German Cohorts, Hannes, has posted shots of a vanishing species of VW, the Type 4 412, a Variant in this case. Which is not surprising, since if one is going to be attached to a car I called VW’s Deadly Sin, the Variant is the one to have. In fact, I’d rather like one myself.
The 411 and its post nose-job 412 successor was a big disappointment for both VW and most of its buyers. The market was ready for something really new, as Air-cooled Boxer Fatigue Syndrome had become an epidemic, especially in Germany. VW soon found that, and its replacement, the Passat, turned out to be exactly what folks had been waiting for.
The 411/412 were too slow, thirsty, space-inefficient, and suffered from various maladies. But they were fundamentally robustly built, in the old-school German VW way. Which means that folks who like them and know how to mitigate their quirks can be quite passionate about them.
The Variant is a practical car, with both a rear load area as well as a quite decently roomy front trunk. And it has superb traction. It was the end of the road for format that first saw the light of day in the 1930s, and forty years is a good, long run. But just like the Corvair didn’t cut it against the competition in the US, so did the similar-sized Type 4.
I like this styling for the VW station wagon. I was bummed when VW discontinued this car in favour of the more conventional, but ugly Dasher.. I would’ve given it a bigger, more powerful 2 litre engine, and a beefier suspension for better handling. But it was one of Volkswagen’s better rear engined cars since the Type 3.
I like the ultra-European styling as well. But a rear-engined station wagon just doesn’t make for good packaging. Neither GM nor VW could make that concept fly. Can anyone think of other small, rear-engined station wagons? Something really weird from East Germany in the early 50s perhaps?
Fresh from Italy: Autobianchi Bianchina. It is based on the Fiat 500.
And the Austrian Steyr-Puch 700, also based on the body of the Fiat 500 Giardiniera.
Nah, both the Trabant and Wartburg were front engined and fwd! And I’m afraid on the other side of the border, Å koda never made a rear engined wagon,
The packaging was not stellar, but it wasn’t all that bad, inasmuch as there were two cargo areas, something no other wagons had.
One of the biggest problems is that the more they were loaded up, the worse their already-bad rear weight bias got.
On the upside, you can put the dog in the wayback and the groceries in the front trunk.
Hillman made an Imp van wagon.
This one was quite succcessful: VW Brasilia
That’s a nice looking wagon. I like the SP2 feel of the front clip.
Is that a metal cap on the exhaust pipe of this unique looking vehicle.
That’s the exhaust for the auxiliary gas heater. it does have a small opening pointing down.
I like the 412 wagon, an updated Squareback . I wonder which was more reliable , the 412 or the Dasher?
I’ve wondered what they were thinking designing the 411/412 wagon that shared little sheetmetal with the Type 3 Squareback, had scarcely more room than the Type 3 Squareback and went into production alongside the Type 3 Squareback, still with only two doors (not only that, but with an orphaned shutline where the rear side doors would have been!)
Oh, wow, I never noticed that shutline before. Weirdness!
It is a visible and very lazily done shutline, but it’s not for the door, it’s far too back on the fender for that. I’m not an engineer, but there’s a similar visible shutline on other two door cars, like the Saab 92.
Here’s a project car where someone built themselves a four door 412 Variant, using the doors and doorframes of a four door fastback. Many pictures of the actual conversion. As you can see on the finished result, the real shutlines comes a little bit forward, also leaving that stump window as a design compromise. You can’t have it all, unless you design it properly that way from the start.
http://www.rastall.com/412/index.html
The Squareback length is 166 in., width 63 in., weight 1940 lbs. Cargo capacity rear 42.4 cf. rear seat folded. , Front trunk, 8 cf. The 411 wagon length is 179 in., width 65.9, weight 2470 lbs. Cargo rear 48.7 cf , front trunk 13.4 cf. Both are 58 in. high. So the 411 412s are bigger mostly in cargo capacity , length , weight, bigger engine.
My sister’s boyfriend had one of these in the mid 70’s although I don’t recall if it was a 411 or 412. I DO remember that it burned itself to the ground for no apparent reason- something to do with the fuel system, although I don’t know what. The other thing I remember is that it was one of the first cars with a computer diagnostic system – it used a proprietary VW plugin to a port in the engine bay, and VW was very proud of the system. However it guaranteed that small independent shops didn’t want to work on the because only dealers had the computer, and dealers hated them because the system didn’t work.
I think that the right hand exhaust pipe is for the heater.
The first model was the 411. “4 doors, 11 years too late”.
No offence
But if you see what the competition was, it is a miracle they are still here today
I mean even Simca made nicer cars with the 1307 series and they were baaaad !
But this, this was an antique concept, Europe had moved on to FWD.
I am a little surprised the wagons did not do better in USA. A real automatic was available, along with the lighter steering that comes with the rear engine. This combined with the compact size and secure trunk should have been attractive to female drivers. Many females are quite uncomfortable driving big cars, but want AT and light steering. I wonder if it was priced too high due to the rising DM. The Dasher replacement sure was.
Sexist much?
Designing/marketing a car for half the drivers. Not doing so is foolish, and perhaps sexist much?
They were indeed too expensive; Road and Track did a comparison test of 1974 compact-but-not-small wagons and the outgoing 412 (iirc the article explained VW didn’t have a Dasher on hand yet) was in Volvo 245 territory, substantially more than a Toyota Mark II, AMC Hornet Sportabout or Datsun 710.
Back when I was into owning and fixing Squarebacks, I tried out a new 412 just for fun. I was unimpressed. It was noticeably bigger and clumsier than the Sq, but no bigger in the cargo area. Same bad rear-engine compromise. If I’d wanted the feel of a Chevy, I would have just bought a Chevy.
And we can see also the brazilian version of this Variant.
.
http://quatrorodas.abril.com.br/classicos/brasileiros/conteudo_224627.shtml
We got in Brazil (as the last breath for the air cooled VW family) a better looking car, called Variant II.
Another too little too late sales flop from VWAG .
I think the earlier 411’s look O.K. and the engines were robust , typically you could put three top ends on the same bottom end before needing any bottom end work .
I have a buddy who’s dotty for these .
Like all VW engine fires , that was caused by failure to replace the (!$!) fuel hoses every two years .
-Nate
Back in the day at the dealership we used to sell the hose by the meter. And it was spendy, it’s special high pressure hose. It would get brittle and hard as a rock after a awhile, especially in the engine compartment due to the heat. Even the hoses on the injectors would rot, requiring expensive injector replacement as well. And the paint was not durable, it would look bad quickly, especially the metallic colors. Fuel injected type 2’s and type 3’s also needed the same hose replacements. There were a lot of fires caused by fuel leaks on all these models. Type 4’s disapeared from the streets quite quickly. The interiors were high quality, although the dash boards would crack quickly.
Just so ~ failure to change the hose meant engine fuel fires fed by 32 P.S.I. ~ that’s a LOT of fuel on the fire before you realize that ‘ pop ‘ you heard two blocks ago was the only warning you’d get that your $3,700 ‘ economy car ‘ was about to go up in smoke .
The injectors didn’t need replacing , they had 1″ long bits of hose held on by cheap crimped swadges , easy to cut and discard , replace the old rotten hose and add a .75 CENT (back then) special band typ fuel injection clamp and motor on happily , same old injectors .
I used to have a color photo on my shop wall of a triple white 1975 VW Beetle Convertible burned beyond repair , it caught fire 7 days after I’d warned the lady owner it needed new fuel hoses complete , she said $150 was too much money and so lost the car…..
Stupid is as stupid does….
-Nate
The injectors were repairable, but since I worked for a VW dealership they would sell (or try to) new factory injectors only. Liability I guess. It was a common repair at independent shops. Agree this was a repair that was stupid to neglect.
Those actually sold reasonably well in Israel on account of the usual aircooled reliability and the lack of (then) any Japanese imports (Subaru, who later scored a huge hit with its cars during the big Japanese manufacturers’ absence from the market, was just starting in Israel). As noted already, they were old hat by then and suffered from a lack of power; a car this size should have had – at least at the top of the range – something like 120 hp.
On a second thought, perhaps low power on what was essentially a small Corvair was not a bad idea…
Just noticed the cool juxtaposition of the previous post’s Star Chief with the big back to the VW with the strangely big front. Baby got back and front. Good job Paul.
Years and years ago, I challenged a ’73 or ’74 412 from a stoplight with my bone-stock Volvo 240 (which was automatic).
You can probably guess as to which car won that race.
and we all grew beards waiting for the result! 😉
This is probably easier to see out of than ANY of today’s high beltline, huge pillared automotive Fuherbunkers.
I remember these. VW TV ads tended to make an impression back then. Some sort of cheerful weirdness about them.
Didn’t the 411/412 power train end up in the Porsche 914?
914 and 72-79 Type 2 and also air cooled Vanagon as well.
A Corvair Flat 6 with Powerglide will fit nicely in the wide engine bay , and the gas milage will not change much . I am sure it will handle better than a Corvair, it has independent rear suspension and VW ‘s steering is quite nimble, compared with Corvair’s 5 turns lock to lock fishing boat steering.