Volkswagen marks 40 years of go-anywhere 4x4 vans

Published: 04 February 2025

► 4×4 Volkswagen vans have been with us since 1985
► It all started with an engineer’s side project
► Now available in five VW vans

Four-wheel-drive is a fixture in the range of most Volkswagen vans, these days, but that wasn’t always the case. Indeed, it wasn’t until 1985 that VW launched its first factory-built commercial in the T3-gen Transporter Syncro, whose 40th anniversary was marked at the recent Bremmen Classic Motor Show.

Four-wheel-drive Volkswagens date all the way back to the Second World War, but the official history of 4WD commercials starts a few decades later with a man called Gustav Mayer. He was development head for the T2 commercial range and a part-time adventurer – the more hostile the terrain, the better. Inevitably, he built himself a 4WD T2 which evidently proved its mettle dune bashing in the Sahara Desert.

Volkswagen T2 4WD prototype

Mayer’s bosses must have been impressed, in 1978 ordering a run of five more prototype 4WD T2s that curiously featured selectable front-wheel-drive. Testing and development must have been a protracted process because it took seven years for a production version to emerge – the T3 Transporter Syncro

Unusually, the four-wheel-drive system VW developed didn’t have a centre differential. Instead, the front diff was bolted to an oil-filled clutch that could engage and disengage the front axle as needed. The system was developed in collaboration with Austrian firm Steyr-Daimler-Puch, which was had previous form engineering the Mercedes G-Wagen.

You could spec the T3 Syncro for on-road use or with diff locks, bash plates and lifted suspension for heavy-duty off-roading. Though with no more than 70bhp-ish from the petrol and diesel engines, you weren’t going to get anywhere in a hurry.

Volkswagen T3 Syncro flat bed

The T3 was replaced in 1993 by the T4 Transporter Syncro – plus the Caravelle and California derivatives. The 4WD system was largely unchanged, albeit turned through 180 degrees to suit the front-wheel-drive platform it was now applied to. A bigger change came in 2004 with the launch of the T5 Transporter, which heralded a new type of 4WD system badged 4Motion.

Volkswagen T4 Caravelle Syncro

The 4Motion system operated on the same centre diff-less principle, but it featured a new viscous coupling. VW describes it as an ‘axially compressed multiplate clutch running in an oil bath,’ with pressure generated by two pumps. When the system detects front wheel slippage, the clutch is pressurised which transfers drive to the rear axle. It’s an ingenious if complex system that VW still uses in many of its 4WD models.

Volkswagen T5 Transporter 4Motion off road

At Bremmen, VW showed off two significant Syncro commercials from the Volkswagen Classic collection. One was a freshly-restored T3 flat-bed truck with 16-inch wheels, one of just 60 built. The other was the 1999 T4 Transporter that drove all 22,880km of the Panamerican Highway, from the top of Alaska to the bottom of Argentina, in a record time of less than 16 days. There’s still an extensive range of 4WD VW vans available, including the Multivan and California, the T7 Transporter and Caravelle, and the ID.Buzz.

Volkswagen T4 Syncro Panamerican Highway record breaker

By Graham King

Senior Staff Writer for Parkers. Car obsessive, magazine and brochure collector, trivia mine.

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