The allure
It stands by the kerb as testament to the durability of its engineering. It stands, too, as testament to how a vehicle becomes a symbol of freedom, possibility and exploratory movement across the land.
The T1 and T2 VW Kombi, in production from the 1950s to the end of the 1970s or thereabouts, is the much-restored symbol of an automotive subculture. Its members spend thousands restoring the clunky old vehicles with their chugging, air-cooled engines into shining examples of what they once were.
the Kombi carries the allure of free living, of possibility and the serendipity of the road…
What contributes to the enduring attraction of these basic vehicles? Nostalgia, for sure. The nostalgia of those who travelled in the Kombi back in its day. That explains the meaning of the Kombi to those of the baby boom generation, but why do the vehicles appeal to later generations?
The big contributor, I think, lies not in nostalgia but in symbolism. Linked in people’s minds with surfers scouring our coasts in search of the translucent green tube, the Kombi carries the allure of free living, of possibility and the serendipity of the road.
We invest things with meaning that is reinforced by the pop culture images of the film and advertising industries. That is the story of the Kombi and the notion of free living associated with it.
The freedom those old Kombi’s symbolise is now the property of those who have seen modern life for the illusion it is, and who have taken to a life on the road, temporarily or permanently. While they might choose a modern van as their escape vehicle they acknowledge the Kombi as the first of the type.
A van cannot give freedom, however it can suggest it. Deciding to live a life as free of society’s cloying attractions and as free as possible of the sticky tentacles of government, the Kombi suggests the means of seeking that freedom irrespective of make or model.
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