I never understood why they cancelled the T3 like busses and made the T4. The T3 with its short wheel base, high ground clearance and large wheels even with its rear engine and rear wheel drive was the more capable bus in many regards. 🙂
8-O Did anyone mention that all of this was done without off-road rubbers! The cars in the clip ALL run on plain road tires! I am pretty impressed... (to say the least)
NOPE if you look close they do have they do have off road the lower quality given the video's age blur's the tire's enough so from side on they look stock 7:03 they pause it you can see it's no road tire.
OK, OK, while these rubbers may not exactly be your ordinary road tyre they certainly aren't what you'd call an offraod tyre on any dedicated offroad vehicle (say Wrangler, Defender, Niva, Jimny etc. Those would be completely different things that would also serve just one single purpose: Either master the most peculiar offroad challenges - or impress bystanders of your adventurous show-off piece in downtown Detroit, Denver or Düsseldorf. Pretty sure none of the tyres used in the video would drown out any conversation at anything above 30 mph and they also wouldn't bring down mpg to one-digit figures. I would also bet that the Syncro Vanagon would beat any Subaru or similar civil 4x4 of roughly that era in 95% of all circumstances. Of course it's not a "true" (i.e. dedicated) offroader BUT unless you want to discover new paths across the Gobi desert or find your way to the source of the Nile you'd be hard pressed to find a more capable everyday 4x4 which is as spacious, comfortable, reasonably quick (57kW was just the base config, more powerful units were available) and outright useable car than this. Anyone here who's mocking the long wheelbase, for example, seems to forget that you can in fact counter that by more ground clearance. Also: if you want/need more space, the car needs to be longer. (There's a reason why Defenders come in 90" and 110" wheelbase versions, you know? Just like they were short and long versions of Freelanders. Or Land Cruisers. Or Patrols. Etc... The Vanagon isn't meant to climb the Himalaya. Not even Ben Nevis. It isn't meant to win Indianapolis or the next drag race at the lights either. And neither is it a 30 ton truck, a Greyhound bus or a flying carpet luxury barge. It is what it is. And for what it is, the Vanagon syncro is one of the best and most capable means of transport for anyone who's after an all-in-one car solution. Some kind of Swiss Army knife or Leatherman to cope with almost any imaginable situation 90% of car users will ever have to deal with. Argument closed. And BTW I am still impressed by it. Very much so. Irrespective of its tyres. 😀
Wow I saw this as a kid when it was new! Had a westy for a while, would've killed for a Syncro (would've came in handy a few times lmao) Great vans, even with their quirks, want another one some day.
I'm sold, when can I buy one? I don't care about any of the mechanical features, I'm m sold on the music alone. Please tell me the exhaust sounds like the music.
I am so sick of our ignorant greed. The modernized relation between machines and people have paved the way for our numb and irresponsible economical values. In the 90s before euroncap safety development programs the manufacturers used to build simple jet utterly practical vehicles with a greater low speed handling like that rear engined 4wd box with a wide traction operating window. In average they behaved more responsively and attained higher average speeds at moose tests due to the lack of safety regulations and therefore they weighed much less and handled neutrally. Oversteering is the utilization of pendulum effect that gives full effect of tire grip and chassis balance and enables the driver to take immediate steering response in order to avoid crash without the delaying effect of overloading the tires. The development of highspeed stability has led to a false sense of security and we have learned to become senseless in the movement of time against distance and we lack the necessity to take responsibility. Stability programs showcase The Ai abilities to make lateral and longitudional calculations in tandem with steering and throttle angle in order to create a preordained target of humans responses but unfortunately till that point technology has not improved the relation of drivers reaction time and vehicle responsiveness at accident avoidance. Cars are designed to crash nose ahead because of the abilities of front end crumple zone that saves lives but countereffectively stability programs no matter how well developed create time consuming initial understeer in dangerous situations like crash avoidance- epic electromechanics can hide the mass with magnetic damping, rear whee steeringl and truly great reverse haldex 4wd systems etc.. so that traction could be maximized but there are no available programs that improve the direct feedback of a modern vehicle nor annull the laws of physics in our senseless everyday automobiles.
What a crock. They aren't dangerously slow at all, in fact their slowness makes them safer than usual. This opinion is laughably stupid (especially considering the fanatical vanlifers these days)
Musically soo cool accompaniment (being music producer, i love to that kind "synths" vibe) , really nice promo. I didn't even expect that VW did that much version out of regular transporter. Especially i was surprised by dog handler van, is anybody have seen it in real life?
Love the music! What's wrong with people who don't like this? How is it not pure class basically scoring that ditch climb section and time it with the saxophone? Who the hell puts that much work into a damn promo video??
I put a link to this video up at another similar one from the USA that I put up here: Syncro Technology 37 T3 Vanagon 1986 Factory VW Promotional Video The link I put up is in the bottom of the description of the other video..
@@mrflamewars I'm 100% on board I had a 25X just the 4 cylinder module I towed my mate's Lexus with clasped suspension up a diveway problay only like 12 degrees BUT THE IMPRESSIVE PART it was just idling & towing it I had to hit the break's in panic at least twice my mind was blown !
I wish cars were advertised like this today. Nowadays it's like ...."here, it's new, wireless phone charger, dynamic ergonomic contemporary slate spacious infotainment screen. Leather on top models......now buy it" No engineering knowledge or background into how it was designed and tested.
Something I believe should've been offered for American Market Vanagon Syncro models was a turbo diesel engine. I'm sure it was available for most markets, but for some reason it was never available here in the USA, or even Canada.
@@NinoJoel I reckon it depends on what makes something "reliable". It takes careful maintenance in order to keep an engine running. Without a good service network, maintenance would be rather difficult.
@@jasoncarpp7742 The problem with these engines where not related to poor maintenance. They suffer from a way to smal cooling system and other engineering problems. It is true that maintenance is important but it only helps so much if the engine itselve is junk. They don´t last if they are used under load or get into longer trafic jams. It is rare to se them reach even 200.000 Km.... Nedles to say normal Petrol engines last longer which is quite unusual. The Turbo Disel engine from the later T4 model gets past the 600.000 Km mark with no problems. I have seen some with 900.000 Km when they where maintained well / Still without any real repair work done to the engine.
Actually, you could get the diesel. At least, in Canada you could. I've seen a few. Even with the turbo... the 1.6 is better off in a Jetta. A 1.9 TDi, however... will do the job just fine 👍
hate to be that guy but I'll stick to my Subaru Outback it's good at......... Well can't honestly think of what it's bad at ? & ok please stop rock crawling them they don't have a great wheelbase & should be lifted 1st & trust me put this in mud & laugh the tire's don't have much width hence no displacement combine this with & long wheelbase well those to thing's are a massive no no for anything off-road remember these are professional driver's & notice how shallow the mud was & no point in the sand do they drive slow because if you stop most car's will get stuck & yes a short wheel base would help even the rock's they where flying over them wait sorry pebble's I'm just guessing here but I think it would struggle going slow over terrain like that let's do a crawl test I don't doubt it can't do it but how well bedside's long wheel base goodbye driveshaft LOOK I don't hate these Van's but pull the other one there an ok Over lander but do what you see here u will get stuck or break something !
