What´s in a name. So are air cooled cars called.

When we bought five years ago our campervan we didn´t know nothing about the air cooled volkswagen history, meanwhile we got the "VW" virus. Our bus is a type 2 and also a T2. Because the names of Volkswagen are confused I´d make this page. This page is not complete also it might contain wrong information. I received a lot of email with comments. Also I´d read a lot of world wide web pages, one of them was the wonderful air-cooled jargon file of Jon Brooker and volkwebbin. Please do send your email with comment ideas or suggestion about this page.

Factory names by Volkswagen.

Type 1 1947~1977 *

Australia: Dak Dak.
Brazil: Fusca.
Denmark : Asfalt-Boble.
England and U.S.A. : Beetle, bug, herbie, super beetle (1302 and 1303). Convertible: ragtop.
Finland and Estonia: Kupla
France: Coccinelle "Lady bug"
Germany: Kaefer. Split-window: Brezelfenster.
Hungary: Bogár (beetle), dudu, herbie, cserebogár (maybeetle), katicabogár (ladybird or ladybug)
Italy: Maggiolino.
Mexico Vocho.
the Netherlands: Kever, Volks-fiets (fiets means bicycle) Convertible:Frommeldak.
Spain: Escarabajo "scarab" Pulguita.
Portugal: Carocha.
Poland: The early VW´s and Kdf´s: Placzek later Garbus, garbik
Sweden: Bubbla, asfalt-bubbla, folka, folka-bubbla, folkvagn, kupla, skalbagge (bug).
Switzerland: The Beetle convertible club of Switzerland

The German History of the Käfer:

• 1934: Ferdinand Porsche designed the VW 30 the predecessor of the beetle.
• 1937: The beetle get his final shape.
• 1941: The first beetle manufactured in germany.
• 1941 to 1948: The "Kdf-Käfer"
• 1949 to 1952: "Brezelkäfer" (Split-window)
• 1952 to 1953: "Zwitterkäfer"
• 1953 to 1957: "Ovalkäfer"
• 1957 to 1959: "Rechteckkäfer (bigger windows)
• 1959 to 1964: A lot of modications on the Rechteckkäfer.
• 1964: Model 1200 A.
• 1965: Model 1300
• 1966: Model 1500
• 1967: Model 1300/1500 convertible to 12 Volt.
• 1970: Model 1302
• 1972: Model 1303
• 1973: Model 1200
• 1977: End of production in germany.
• 1978: Mexico production of model 1200 C.
• 1982: Jeans bug and special bug.
• 1985: 50 year beetle model.
• 1997: The concept 1

There is a good Beetle Bits & Bobs site with more than 100 photographs of the beetle through the years.
This site is of Lee Taylor, if you are a beetle fan you must visit this site.

Type 2 busses, watch out T1, T2, T3 are factory names T1 doesn´t mean type1 !!!
T1 1949~1967 *

Australia: Kombi.
Denmark: Rugbrød (a danish bread "smørrebrød")
England and U.S.A. : Barndoor (1949~1955) microbus, splitscreen, split-window, splitties,
early bus.
If you like to know more about the barndoor busses take a look at Thom´s barndoor bus page
Finland: Junakeula (means trainfront, old finnish trains look exactly the same)
Germany: Samba, Bulli.
Hungary: Osztott ablakos (splitscreen)
The Netherlands : Microbus, splitbus, spijlbus, transporter.
Poland: Papuga, it means: parrot

There is a type2 mailing list send a email to:
listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with a body of subscribe type2 firstname lastname
There is also a web page of the mailing list.

T21968~1979 *

Australia: Kombi.
Canada: Hector.
Denmark: Rugbrød (a danish bread "smørrebrød")
England and U.S.A. : Bay-window, wraparound, late bus, minibus, big window bus, hippie-van (-: , breadloafs.
Finland: Klaippari (short for minibus)
U.S.A. : Breadloafs.
Germany: Bulli.
Hungary: T2a: alsóindexes (indicator below) T2b: felsõindexes (indicator above)
The Netherlands : Minibus, pano (to panorama bus), bussie, hippie-van.
Poland: Hipisowka, Ogórek Means: cucumber.
More T2 bus information on the : Pano bus page

T3 1980~1983 *

Australia: Kombi.
England and U.S.A. : Vanagon, westie (to westfalia) Eurovan.
Denmark: Rugbrød (a danish bread "smørrebrød")
Germany: Bulli.
Hungary: Kocka (cube)
The Netherlands: Vierkante bus, aardappelkist. (potatobox)

There is a vanagon mailing list, send an email to: listproc@lenti.med.umn.edu
with a body of: subscribe vanagon your name.

Type 3 1961~1974 *

England and U.S.A. : Fastback variant, notchback, squareback. More type3 information
Germany: Fliessheck, Stufenheck.
Finland: Tilulilu (1600 TL fastback)
The Netherlands: Ponton.
Hungary: Egyhatos (1,6), ezerhatos (1600)
Sweden: Square: Tvilling
karmann ghia 1961 ~ 1969 *
karmann ghia type 34
When Volkswagen finalized their new car, the Type 3, Karmann again teamed with Ghia to design a body for the Type 3 chassis. The result was the Karmann-Ghia 1500, which shared the chassis and engine/transmission layout with "Variant", "Notchback, and "Fastback" models of the Volkswagen 1500.
Sedan type 141 Karmann ghia world
Cabriolet type 143
Type 34 Volkswagen Type 34 Karmann Ghia Registry
The Karmann Ghia club of north America

Type 4 1968~1974 ?

411 stationwagen 412 sedan.
Germany: Nasenbaer (nose-bear).
Finally a home for type 4

Type 181 1970~1978 **

U.S.A. : Acapulco (model1974), the thing, vw181.
Germany : Kübelwagen Kübelsitz Kübelsitzer.
Denmark : Jagtvogn
England : Safari, trekker.
Hungary: Kübli ( but word for word: slop-pail) Izé (what's it)
Internet 181 club
Special: Schwimmwagen, Schwimmkübel, (swimming car).

There is a thing mailing list, send an email to: things@netcom.com with a body of: subscribe thing .

VW 914 1969 ~1976 *

Porsche 914 Renegade Porche 914 Club

* Year of air-cooled volkswagen production in Germany, T2 and T3 are still in production in other countries.
** Year of air-cooled volkswagen production in Mexico.

Thanks to:
Australia: Michael Rochfort (Vintage club of Australia)
Belgium: Geert Wens (The air-cooled dedicated !)
Germany: Guido Schenk, Elmo
Canada: Jean-Baptiste Le Pesant
Denmark: Nils Bjørn Pedersen, Martin
Finland: Kai Lappalainen, Heikki Syrjamaki
Poland: Peter
The Netherlands: Pim van Loon, Hans Sprenkels (VW-Euro), Jens Zeemans, Hanno Spoelstra,
Ivo Tichelaar, Vincent Molenaar .
United Kingdom: Sarah Gallergher
United States: Jon Brooker (the air-cooled jargon file) , Mikey
Sweden: Jan-Anders Lindqvist, Hakan Steinholtz
And: Volkswebbin´
Photo credit: background VW key Jean Petit we used his new digital camera toy.

Thank you for the information, new email means a new update.

More general volkswagen information

There is a vintage VW mailing list if you like to subscribe:
listserv@sjsuvm1.sjsu.edu with a body of subscribe vintagvw your name.

Newsgroup:
English version: rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled
U.S.A. version: rec.cars.vw.aircooled

air-cooled VW links:
The VW Archive by Fredrik Hansson.
VW links and VW homepages and also a lot of other useful VW links.

Are you an owner of a air-cooled car be a member of:

WorldwideWolksvagenclub

This site was awarded a Times Pick by the LosAngeles Times on 1/8/98.

updated

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