Adios Combi.

Another classic VW drives into history By Pete Frost

The Volkswagen bus that carried a generation of hippies on long, psychedelic trips has come to the end of the road in Mexico after a run of 33 years.

The era of peace and love will finally terminate at the end of December when the company ceases sales of the boxy vehicle that came to symbolise a certain sense of freedom.

Brazil is the only other site where the Combi is still produced, and union officials say they suspect Volkswagen is planning to end production soon as part of cost cutting measures.

And, a Brazilian Panel van

In Brazil, the Combi (which they spell with a K) and its 1600cc air-cooled, rear-mounted fuel-injected engine, was first introduced to the world in 1950 as the split-window Type 2, and officially named the Transporter. The current ?bay-window Combi was the second generation of the vehicle introduced in 1968 and has been in production for South American and Mexican markets ever since, even though it was discontinued for the rest of the world in 1982 in favour of the third, and subsequently fourth generation Transporter.

Although the Brazilian Type 2 has the latest air-cooled motor, the Mexican versions are all fitted with the more up to date 1781cc in-line water-cooled fuel-injected engine with 90bhp. With the engine at the rear, a good deal of plumbing takes the coolant to and from a front mounted radiator. These water-cooled bay-window buses are instantly recognisable as they have a large black square grille on the nose.

The classic Type 2 is being replaced in the VW line-up by the Eurovan, a more modern vehicle with a water-cooled, front engine, which we know in Europe as the current T4 Transporter.

The VW de Mexico web site (www.vw.com.mx) no longer lists the Combi, and is instead extolling the virtues of the new Eurovan. The web site of VW do Brazil (www.volkswagen.com.br) is still advertising the classic Combi in three versions " panel van, Kombi (a van with windows) and as a bus. It wasn't that long ago that they were also selling a single cab pickup version. Very cool!

The demise of the old bus has saddened a lot of old hippies, as Volkswagen conceded with full-page adverts in Mexican newspapers that read ?Adios Combi, above a picture of a teary-eyed, ageing flower-child in a tie-dye shirt.

''I think it's gonna be a big surprise for Volkswagen fans that they were still making them down there,'' said Ryan Price, editor of the magazine VW Trends. ''In the same sentence, I think there will be some remorse. ''It's the end of an era. It came to symbolise a certain sense of freedom, as if they could go anywhere.''

That was the basis of the bus's reputation in Latin America and Europe, which was a little different from that in the US.

Last outpost of the Type2, a Brazilian Combi

Mmulti-coloured paint jobs are uncommon in the US where the vehicle is more prized for its sturdiness, large carrying capacity and high ground clearance - a must for dirt roads and mountain communities.

Volkswagen officially lists the Combi's capacity as ''eight to eleven passengers''. In some parts of Mexico, groaning microbuses are still used as fare-paying buses, somehow carrying as many as 18 to 20 people, not always in strict adherence to safety rules.

Volkswagen said in a statement that the Eurovan would ''offer the modernity, new technology and space that current customers demand''.

Air-cooled production will still live on of course, in the form of the original Beetle built at VW de Mexico's plant in Puebla.

While Volkswagen officials in Brazil are refusing to say when, or if, production of the Combi would end, unions there " who recently ended a strike about cost cutting - say the company is uninterested in keeping old production lines going.

For the past five years, production has been split, with Mexico manufacturing the Combi's engines and the Brazilian plant making the chassis. It is unclear where Brazil would get motors to carry on making the model.

''It's an absurd decision. I wish they wouldn't kill it,'' said Israel Gomez, 28, whose 1964 21-window Microbus draws admiring glances on Mexico City streets. ''It's made for road trips; it has great sight lines. I can't imagine Mexico without Combis. It's a vehicle that's part of history here.''

Lets hope and pray he doesn't have to say the same thing about the classic Beetle in the not too distant future.