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VanagonEuroVan
Subject:Transporter designations
From:Douglas Martin
Date:Tue, 26 May 1998 23:48:58 -0700

Date:   Wed, 27 May 1998 00:16:29 EDT
From:   Blbachman <Blbachman@AOL.COM>
Subject:        trivia question

My logical mind says:
T1 Transporter = split screen (to 1967)
T2 Transporter = Bread Loaf/Bay Window (to 1979?)
T3 Transporter = Vanagon (to 1991)
T4 Transporter = Eurovan
Yet I keep finding references to the Vanagon as a T2 Transporter.
What gives?  Mistake on someone else's part?
-Blaine
These designations are correct. The confusion stems from the fact that all
T1, T2, T3's were designated by VW in the air-cooled days as Type II
vehicles. Beginning with the third generation Type II, someone got the
brilliant idea that they should give the North American version the cutesy
name of "Vanagon," but in the rest of the great wide world it is still
simply a Type II. With the advent of the fourth generation, VW dropped the
Type II designation in favor of T4, or fourth generation Transporter. In
keeping with the cutesy tradition, NA vehicles were called "EuroVan." This
new moniker was then retroactively applied to the earlier Transporters, ergo
T1, T2, and T3. To further confuse matters, some people use the designation
T2 incorrectly to mean Type II, which in reality applies to all Transporters
prior to the fourth generation. So, yes, the Yanks' Vanagon is a Type II,
but only the second generation 1968-79 (so-called baywindows) are actually a
T2.

-Doug

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