Phill,
I have long been curious as to how this terminology
came about.
When the Beetle and the Kombi came to
Australia, general parlance was 'Volkswagen' to describe the Beetle and 'Kombi'
to describe the Kombi. Within the dealerships, Type 1 was applied to the
Beetle and Type 2 to the Kombi; this was reflected in the parts listing but I
only ever heard it used in the parts departments, never by the sales people.
I never heard Type 1 and Type 2 used outside the dealerships, certainly
never in advertisements, until the Type 3 was released in Australia and
advertisements for it used the 'Type 3' designation. In fact, the first
Type 3 vehicles sold here had a large stylized "Type 3" logo on the body
sides.
To my knowledge the Type 4 was never seriously
imported to Australia. The few that came here didn't create much
interest.
When the first full width screen Kombi arrived in
Australia (successor to the original split screen), I heard the Type 2 T2
parlance for the first time. Then we got the next body (and our Syncros)
and it was Type 2 T3. I have always assumed that T2, T3, T4, etc, was the
equivalent of 'series' but have never had that confirmed. I have asked
German people in the industry if they could clarify this but none ever
have.
The two digit type numbers appear on English and
European Syncro websites regularly but they never seem to be applied
anywhere else in the world, which just adds to the confusion.
Perhaps Mike, Joachim or Martin can add a bit to
this.
Les
----- Original Message -----From: plander@optusnet.com.auSent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7:40 AMSubject: Re: Re: [Syncro_T3_Australia] Re: Bed in raised roof plus Viscous CouplingThis is confusing because the words Type and Transporter start with a "T".
T2= Type 2 = A VW Transporter/ Kombi/Van/ Bus/Caravelle
T21= Type 21 = The second generation of Transporter etc (1968-1980)
T25= Type 25 = The third generation of Transporter etc (1980-1992)
This was the correct and official VW model designation.
In 1990 when the fourth generation Transporter was released it was called the T4 or Transporter 4 which I think was a Type 70.
Therefore people started to call the earlier models as T1, T2 and T3.
T1=Transporter 1 = 1950-1967
T2=Transporter 1 = 1968-1980
T3=Transporter 1 = 1980-1992
T4=Transporter 1 = 1991 etc
I hope that this clears it up.
Phill.