All brochure images from the collection of Mark J. McCourt.
Calendar year 1971 was a big one for Volkswagen in the United States, both in terms of sales (fourth-best ever year, with 522,655 units) and of new products and innovations.
The “large” 411 finally reached our shores in both 4-Door and 3-Door (a.k.a. embiggened Squareback) Sedan forms. This was the proto-Phaeton, VW’s first real stab at luxury with a fully-automatic transmission (as opposed to the Type 1′s Automatic Stick Shift) as standard equipment, plus front disc brakes, wall-to-wall carpeting, an auxiliary heater and metallic paint.
The Type 3 Squareback and Fastback -the latter now marketed by its internal code name- featured a fuel-injected version of the ingenious “pancake” engine. The Elm Green car shown in the representative Squareback photo is identical to the one that my parents bought new in 1971, and brought me home from the hospital in a few years later.
The Station Wagon, as they were calling the Type 2 bus at that time, wore new front disc brakes this year. Amazingly, that same model remained in production, with numerous changes, through December 20, 2013.
The Type 2 “Campmobile” -as VW of America’s marketing staff were calling the Westfalia camper at the time- reached a milestone when the 100,000th example was built in 1971.
The Karmann Ghia coupe and convertible remained VW’s vampy, yet practical, supermodel. We’re intrigued by the brochure image that shows three sports cars zooming past the parked KGs- we have our theories as to what those three blurry cars are, but we’d like to hear yours, in the comments…
The Sunroof Sedan remained based on the standard Type 1 Volkswagen, but from 1971-on, all Volkswagen Convertibles would be Super Beetles, incorporating this new model’s coil spring/MacPherson strut front suspension and concurrent redesigned nose. The changes brought better handling and more luggage space.
As mentioned, 1971 was the first year for the Super Beetle- which, incidentally, was the only Type 1 to officially bear the name “Beetle” with a capital B, as more than just a nickname; this moniker would reappear in the 1998-2011 New Beetle and now the current, first-ever-just-plain-old Beetle.
To read all about it, click to enlarge the thumbnails.
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