The coatis, 411 and 412
After confessing some British Guilty Pleasures, Cornelis appears to have a thing for a German classic: the Volkswagen Type 4, or the 411 that was called 412 after the facelift.
In the rare case that there is a copy at the curb, I secretly take a photo of it with my phone. Want to share the picture with others? No, not that. Slight embarrassment. This is a difficult, often misunderstood car. Yet I have a soft spot for this 1968 coatis, the Volkswagen 411. In the 1970s, it was simply part of the street scene that formed the backdrop to my youth.
After a facelift, the 411 becomes the 412 and things become a little less bad
To be honest: I don’t think the 411 with its oval headlights is beautiful, quite ugly in fact. After the facelift in 1972 (the car was then called 412), it became slightly less bad, but it was still not elegant. The car shows on all sides that Volkswagen – rigidly adhering to the concept with the air-cooled boxer engine in the rear – is already seriously aware that they have set themselves on the wrong track for the future. Nevertheless, the 411 is the link to Volkswagen’s new future and that makes it interesting to me. It is the first VW with a self-supporting body, it is available with four doors and has McPherson struts at the front. Oh, and furthermore, at its presentation, the 411 is the first series-built car with standard electronic fuel injection. However, it will all be of concern to the general public, because Opel, Ford, Fiat and Renault see much more modern and, above all, more practical cars.
In addition to the Beetle, the van and the 1500/1600 (including the Karmann Ghia), it is the fourth model series at Volkswagen and is internally referred to as Type 4. At Volkswagen, this quickly became a label for a group of difficult cars: the 411/ 412 together with the K70 (internal type 481) and the VW Porsche 914 (internal type 471/472). Wolfsburg doesn’t really seem to know what to do with these cars. Like the 411/412, the K70 is larger than anything Volkswagen has ever built and although the 411/412 shares its engine with the 914, it is still very different from the Karmann Ghia. It is a group of bastards for target groups with which Volkswagen is clearly not (yet) familiar. When the last 412 rolled off the production line in May 1974, the counter for the 411/412 stood at a paltry 355,200, virtually nothing by Volkswagen standards. Before it could even reach classic status, it has been all but eradicated, dissolved into nothingness. Shame.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl