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1969 - 1972 Volkswagen 411 estate

1969 - 1972 Volkswagen 411 LE

1968 - 1969 Volkswagen 411L saloon

1972 - 1974 Volkswagen 412 saloon

1972 - 1974 Volkswagen 412 Variant

The Volkswagen Type 4 was a mid-sized 2 or 4-door saloon or 2-door estate built by Volkswagen (VW) of Germany. It was produced between 1968 and 1974.

The Type 4 was larger than the Volkswagen Type 3 and had a more powerful engine (1.7 - 1.8 litres, as opposed to 1.5 - 1.6 for the Type 3). The Type 3 and Type 4 were the last of the company's air-cooled models, following on from the Volkswagen Type 1 ("Beetle"). They were succeeded by the massively successful Golf/Rabbit and Dasher/Passat.

Contents 1 Features 2 Models 3 Sales and Marketing 4 Popular perception 5 Powerplant 6 External links

The Type 4 introduced many firsts to the Volkswagen range. These included: unibody construction, MacPherson strut front suspension, rear suspension with coil springs and trailing wishbones, a hydraulic clutch (for models equipped with a manual transmission), and one of the first fully automatic transmissions (the first was in the 1969 Type 3 models) in a Volkswagen. (Previous cars had used an automatic (vacuum-actuated) clutch, but gears still had to be changed manually.) The Type 4 was also Volkswagen's first 4-door car. The MacPherson strut front suspension was later successfully employed in the 1302/1303 ("Super Beetle").

The Type 4's battery was located under the driver's seat. In the rear of the car was located a gasoline-operated heater (an Eberspächer BA4) that was fired by a glow plug accessible from a hidden rear window deck plate. The cloth covered rubber fuel hoses made the engine prone to fires.

The Type 4 included the 411 (produced from 1968 to 1972) and the optimized 412 (produced in 1973 and 1974). Each model included a fastback saloon and an estate version. The car at launch came with a 1679 cc twin carburettor engine: just one year later this was replaced with a fuel injected unit, increasing claimed power output from 68 to 80 bhp, and making this one of the first mass production vehicles to include the feature — along with the Volkswagen Type 3, which also received electronic fuel injection in 1968. The 412 introduced for the 1973 model year featured a slightly larger, 1795 cc engine.

The design of the Type 4 was used when the Volkswagen Brasilia was produced for the Latin America market.

During a six year production span, just 367.728 Type 4s were produced. That was better than the 210.082 achieved by the contemporary Volkswagen K70 (which admittedly had only a five year model life). Nevertheless, Type 4 sales levels must have been disappointing when set against the volumes achieved by the Type 1 (Beetle) and Type 3 models. The domestic market dominance of GM's Opel Rekord, its production running at about 300.000 cars annually, was not seriously threatened by Volkswagen's 411/412 in the family sedan sector.

In the United States, where the Type 4 was on sale for four seasons, it was regarded as too underpowered. The Type 4 was in fact a sales disaster in the U.S., selling only 117,110 units over a four-year-period.

In contemporary German vernacular, the 411 was called "Langnase" ("long nose") or "Vier Türen elf Jahre zu spät", meaning "four doors coming eleven years too late" because it was Volkswagen's first 4-door sedan.^{[citation needed]}

Main article: Volkswagen air cooled engine

While the Type 4 was discontinued in 1974 when sales dropped, its engine became the power plant for Volkswagen Type 2s ("Kombis") produced from 1972 to 1979: it continued in modified form in the later "Vanagon" which was air-cooled from 1980 until mid-1983. The engine that superseded the Type 4 engine in late 1983 retained Volkswagen Type 1 architecture, yet featured water-cooled cylinder heads and cylinder jackets. The Wasserboxer, VW speak for a water-cooled, opposed-cylinder (flat or boxer engine), did not enjoy the reputation for longevity that the original air-cooled design had forged. From the very start, the engine suffered cylinder-to-head sealing problems, mostly due to galvanic corrosion, often a result of slack maintenance schedules. Volkswagen discontinued the engine in 1992, upon the introduction of the Eurovan.

• Volkswagen Type 3 & 4 club

v • d • e Volkswagen car timeline, European market, 1950s-1970s
Type	1950s										1960s										1970s
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Economy car	Beetle (Type 1)
Supermini																										Polo I
																												Derby I
Small family car																									Golf I
												Type 3
Large family car																		Type 4
																			K70 (NSU)					Passat I
Coupé						Karmann Ghia																				Scirocco I
Van	Type 2 - T1																		Type 2 - T2

v • d • e Volkswagen car timeline, North American market, 1950s-1970s
Type	1950s										1960s										1970s
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Economy	Beetle (Type 1)
Compact												Fastback / Squareback (Type 3)														Rabbit I
																										Dasher
Mid-size																					Type 4
																			K70 (NSU)
Coupé						Karmann Ghia																				Scirocco I
Convertible	Beetle Convertible
								Karmann Ghia Convertible
Van	Microbus (Type 2 - T1)																		Microbus (Type 2 - T2)
Utility																								Thing

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