David C Henley: VW bus back in production

It was early September about 25 years ago, and I was heading from home to downtown Fallon to buy gas, groceries and a new broom.

I should have done my shopping a day earlier. Filling stations and markets across town were packed with customers en route to a deserted stretch of land in the Black Rock Desert to participate in the annual week-long Burning Man festival that beckons “hippies” and others who reject traditional mainstream society as well as a mixed collection of artists, sculptors, freaks, geeks, nudists, musicians, stoners and ravers.

The gas line moved at a snail’s pace, and I struck up a conversation with two young fellows and their girlfriends, seniors at Indiana University, who were in line ahead of me. They were bound for Burning Man, and their home for at least a month was a Volkswagen van gaily painted in vivid colors of peace symbols and flowers. When I told them I had never been inside a VW van, they said, “Welcome aboard” and showed me the beds that could be turned into tables and couches, the kitchen with a sink, stove and icebox, two or three closets and a toilet enclosed in a separate compartment.

After we gassed up, the five of us piled into the van and I took them on a tour of Fallon that included the Lahontan Valley News Fallon Eagle-Standard building on North Maine Street, where I showed them our press facilities, darkrooms, conference room and my messy office, and then we were off for my home on the southern bank of the Carson River. My wife wasn’t home, but we discovered a carton of chocolate ice cream hiding in the fridge that we devoured as we sat on the patio watching the mighty Carson roll slowly by. Then it was back to downtown, where I retrieved my car and met the students at Safeway, where we did our respective shopping. I still have the broom I bought that morning!

Following hugs and handshakes, the Indiana kids left me and drove west to Fernley and then north to Burning Man. I drove around Fallon for nearly a half hour, photographing countless VW vans I encountered on roads leading to the Burning Man festivities. What a great time I had that day! I became enamored with the VW van, and my awe for this wonderful bus has never ceased. The first VW van was built at the VW plant at Wolfsburg, Germany, in early March, 1950, and an estimated 7 million were sold in North America until the late 1970s, when the van was banned for sale in the United States and Canada after failing to pass new emission and safety regulations. Production was shifted to Brazil, where it was halted in 2003, because it didn’t have anti-lock brakes and airbags.

Used vans still may be found across the U.S., and they fetch high prices if in excellent condition. Some classic and well-maintained vans have sold for upwards of $300,000 at automobile auctions if they are in mint condition. But the van inventory is shrinking, and many VW enthusiasts fear the vehicle will eventually disappear. However, don’t despair. There’s a shining light at the end of the tunnel, rejoices my old friend Chris Miller, a master foreign vehicle mechanic and owner of Newport Motorsports in Costa Mesa, Orange County, Calif.

Chris told me last week that a new VW van called the “Buzz” is being built at the Wolfsburg plant and will be on sale late next year or in early 2024.

“The VW people have brought the VW van back by popular demand. Thousands of car enthusiasts have been demanding the return of the VW van,” said Chris, who added that the original van, which was officially called the “VW Type 2 Transporter,” was one of the world’s first motor homes. But it had several limitations, such as horsepower ranging only between 25 and 40 and it was somewhat top heavy or “tippy.”

The new “Buzz” will be available in two-tone paint like the original vehicle, will produce up to 201 horsepower, will greatly resemble the original van and, most importantly, will be all electric. The van’s battery packs are mounted under the floor, giving the vehicle a low center of gravity and “excellent agile handling,” according to VW engineers. Options for the Buzz will include a 10-inch rectangular screen for navigation and entertainment. The new electric bus, which will have a 200-plus mile driving range on its batteries, will come in two wheelbases cleverly named “standard” and “long,” but only the long will be sold in the U.S. It will have seating for as many as seven and, like the original van, comes in a cargo model. Many of those original vans were modified at the Wolfsburg plant to serve, for example, as pickup trucks, enclosed delivery vans and even fire trucks. The first VW camper vans were called “Westfalia campers” that could be converted to “Combi” camping vans which had side windows and removable middle and rear seats.

The “Buzz” will sell for about $60,000 in the U.S. The original van is the best-selling van in history, and at its inception in the 1950s was promoted by the Volkswagen company as roomy, easy to operate and maintain and a cost-effective alternate to the family station wagon, according to David Kindy, a noted historian, military and transportation journalist and author of “How the Volkswagen Bus Became a Symbol of Counterculture” which stressed how the van was able to satisfy the wants of the “hippie” and, at the same time, entice large families, station wagon folks, surfers and campers to its salesrooms.

When Jerry Garcia died in 1995, Volkswagen remembered the Grateful Dead frontman by running an advertisement that featured a VW van with a tear streaming from one headlight. It was an epochal moment when the two symbols of American culture came together in “tender recognition of their influence on mainstream society,” wrote Kindy.

David C. Henley is publisher emeritus of the Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle-Standard.