Many automakers will build cars for decades and never create a product that can truly be considered a cultural icon. Few that do produce multiple such models. One of those is Volkswagen.The original Beetle/Bug/Type 1 is recognizable almost anywhere and even by people that know nothing about cars. The Beetle itself spawned another icon in the form of the Type 2 (or Microbus), a vehicle that is celebrating its diamond anniversary in 2010.
Like the original Bug, the Microbus had an air-cooled flat-four cylinder engine hanging off the back of the rear axle. The front seats were moved up over the front axle creating a format that was eventually copied by Ford, Dodge, General Motors and countless Japanese automakers.
Over sixty years, the bus became the ride of choice for surfers, hippies and iconoclasts everywhere. Many surviving examples from the 1960s are still hauling surfboards and Deadheads today. In the 1980s, the third-generation bus morphed into the still-loved but less iconic Vanagon, with emissions standards forcing the adoption of water cooling in 1983. The last of the rear-engined VW vans ceased production in 1992
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