VW Transporter eligible for AARP membership

Yep, they made crew-cab pickup versions as well. Also note the "wide-bed" pickup directly behind the one you mentioned.

The truck that hatched the Chicken Tax.

Pretty wild, I wonder what the payload was on the wide bed model (and what it rode like).
 
I count about 25 visible in the photo and almost as many variations, notable if it was set up this way....but much more interesting if this was more of a random shot.

By today' standards, they're miserable contraptions.
 
I've ridden in several 30 or 40 years ago. I used to own a '63 Beetle—which flipped, thanks to the rear swing arm suspension—which inspired the original Corvair. (See, Ralph Nader was right!)

Another funny thing with Beetles....it always seemed like an inappropriate thing to ask but I always wanted to know if the current owner was in possession of a pre or post engine fire car.
 
I had an Aunt who bought a Beetle as her first new car around 71 or 72, used to like riding in it. She took my two sisters and I to this new restaurant that had just been built in town......for our first Big Mac (I picked all the seeds off the bun - never seen them before). And we had an Aunt and Uncle that had a MicroBus around the same time and we used to go places in that - remember a drive thru safari where the monkeys pulled the wipers off of it and a lion lifted his leg to rinse the right front tire. Fun vehicles, both.
 
As dated and quirky as they are, I still appreciate seeing one in good shape on the road - both the Beetle and bus / truck. In fact a late 60s or early 70s Beetle would be on my "I won the lottery" car collection list of about 25 to 30 cars - park it right next to my P1800 Estate of the around the same vintage.

Very cool. And notice the windshield wipers: some of them are stopped pointing to the right of the car and some are pointing to the left. Is that for RHD vs. LHD, I guess?

Ah yes, the Chicken Tax. It was a 25% tax on imported trucks levied in retaliation to a tax Germany had levied against imported chickens - birds that had been coming from the USA. The imported truck at which our retaliatory tax was aimed was the German VW transporter.
 
But the law stayed on the books and affected Japanese truck imports later on. Toyota went as far as having the beds and other parts of their Hi-lux trucks built in California, to be assembled at the port - reducing the portion of the truck subject to the tax.
 
When the Toyota 4Runner came along, the tax had a profound effect. The tax made the never-before-seen 4-door 1990 Toyota 4Runners (which came out in 1989) much cheaper than the 2-door version because they could be classified as imported station wagons instead of imported trucks. At the time, no one could quite figure out why anyone would want a 4-door off-roader. But they sold much better than expected, and the 2-door version died out altogether in 1992.
 
Then the Ford Explorer came out in March 1990 as a 1991 model.
Before these two vehicles, volume SUVs were off-road biased a 2-door only. Oh sure, the Suburban had always been around, but at the time, they were too big for city dwellers.
 
Now...

"Before these two vehicles, volume SUVs were off-road biased a 2-door only. "
 
Good theory but what about the Jeep Cherokee? It had been selling as mostly a 4 door in large numbers since 1983.

Very true. The Jeep Cherokee, and before that the Wagoneer, were the true forefathers of the 4-door SUV as we know it today.

When I was a kid I broke my arm. Got a ride to the hospital in one of those.
 
Soooo bumpy. Ouch, ouch, OUCH!
 
The most painful car ride in my life. I'll never forget how poorly that van rode.

I have to agree on the Cherokee vs Explorer....I remember as a Ford fan I was frustrated at the time that Jeep had lauched their 4dr and were getting all the sales. Once Ford (and GM) added 2 more doors that was almost the end of the 2dr versions.