1966 Volkswagen Kombi Transporter

The genesis for Volkswagen’s near-ubiquitous Transporter, or Microbus, was a combination of post-war necessity and the clever instincts of a Dutch importer.

After World War II, VW’s Wolfsburg factory was in disarray and taken over by the Allied forces. While offered to a number of British and American car companies as war reparations, ironically none saw any merit in Volkswagen’s quirky looking Beetle, so they all passed on the opportunity. This left the British commanders who were overseeing the factory with a quandary of what to do with the facility. In the end, they decided to continue producing Volkswagen’s Kubelwagen personnel transporter (a forefather of Volkswagen’s versatile “Thing” from the 1970s) as a way of supporting the allied forces and keeping the locals gainfully employed.