The brazilian govenment is killing off the vw kombi after 56 years of production in brazil. I know its not really a late bay but its sort of the son/daughter of our vans. Wonder what it will do to the parts situation? Seems new laws to be introduced in Brazil on 1 January 2014 deem that all new vehicles sold must have ABS as well as driver and passenger airbags so production of the kombi is getting stopped. http://www.ausmotive.com/2013/08/20/this-is-the-last-goodbye-for-the-volkswagen-kombi.html
Wonder how much they'd sell the tooling for? You could get it made in some African backwater far from the eyes of the Health and Safety brigade.
Last production run of 600, with special paintwork. I wonder how much they will sell for? And just for the record, I don't want one
ABS should be easy enough as the T25 had that as an option and the braking systems are pretty much the same. Not sure about the airbags though. Delete the glovebox and put one there and fit an airbag steering wheel. Gotta be cheaper than making a complete new vehicle.
I think they saw this coming hence why they doubled the price of the Brazillians a few years ago! No doubt they will go into repairs and refits of the older ones now, possibly buying some of the tooling from VW to make their own panels etc for resale - who knows? It is sad that the T2 bus will no longer be produced, just as it was sad when Mexico stopped making the old Beetle. These relics are the oldest type of car still in production despite some modern features. I personally think that once it stopped being an air-cooled vehicle it should have been finished off, as it was a bit pointless, the T5 being its replacement. Original / genuine VW parts are obviously going to eventually become scarce, although given the huge numbers around in South America, I am sure VW will have stores of them for years to come. After that there are after-market producers of the various items we need so there should be a ready supply of these too for many years to come. Second hand parts too may well remain in abundance as people now realise that there will be a market for them... I may start hoarding !
^this. I'm sure if VW tried, they could update the busses. Pretty obvious they don't want to. They've had a good run for their money with that design. Agree that parts costs are likely to go up.
abs would be sooooo dangerous you would stop before you want too and air bags only work if you have a crash ,what about ya legs??
They have just placed their final order for 100 vans. Reengineering to add ABS and air bags would cost millions, and drive the cost of production up significantly. Odd that Brasil, an emerging country, is banning these from being produced and therefore being used on their roads, yet we still allow it?
Sad times but life moves on Perhaps someone will buy the tooling and use proper metal in the the new panels
At least your pretty face would still be ok. Dont need one for the legs thats what the radiators there for.
Same sort of thing happened in Mexico with beetle taxis saying that all taxis should have 4 doors. 50 thousand beetle taxis were scrapped in 2 years. Not stripped for parts, just pancaked.
