>
>
>
> Actually VW did make the Vanagon with an inline 4. The diesel.  :)
>
> And.....
>
> In South Africa, they put in 5 cylinders. This thread has a pic of one:
>
>
> http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=215380&highlight=south+african
>
> Check out this SA autotrader link
>
> http://www.autotrader.co.za/
>
 South Africa got the a/c boxer T3 and WBX T3 on more or less the same
timeline as the U.S..
In-line 4 and 5 cyl. were introduced in the early '90's in order to maintain
local production of the T3 with the demise of the WBX. And, yes, there was a
factory 1.8 I-4 in the early '90's. I have the brochure somewhere.

As to why the Boxer was kept in production so long, labor issues would be my
best guess, and not a very good one at that. The orginal Bug stayed in
production in Germany longer than it really should have ('79?) and the rest
of the world for much longer than that- for better or worse.