2018 Volkswagen T6 Transporter California first drive review

By Chris Chin

The van is not dead yet. You wouldn’t be able to tell in the United States, where the market continues to flood with crossover SUVs and trucks thanks to cheap gas. For Europeans however, the van is as much a part of their culture as gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks are to ours. And after spending a weekend camping out in the latest and greatest version of Volkswagen’s legendary T6 Transporter van, I’ve never wanted a van so badly in my life.

Volkswagen’s van tradition dates back almost 70 years to the original “Type 2,” VW’s first-ever Transporter model, also known as the “Kombi,” “Microbus,” or just, the “bus.” When introduced in 1950, American motorists judged vehicles more by the weight of their chrome than their utility, so it wasn’t until the 1960s that the Type 2 really caught on in American culture. It became a symbol for the single largest contemporary countercultural phenomena in history: the hippie movement.

Digital Trends Article