Rare front-wheel drive Mexican truck Volkswagen Hormiga 1977 (26 photos + 4 videos)
Mexican love for the original Volkswagen Beetle led to because it was produced there until 2003! This country also produced the EA489 truck shown here with the Beetle-inspired name Hormiga, which means "Ant" in Spanish. 
Rare item put up for online auction Bring a Trailer Volkswagen truck - EA489 Hormiga. This is one of about 3.6 thousand similar machines assembled in Mexico in the second half of the seventies. Per The 44-year-old lot has already been offered $21,000. 
Hormiga is an extremely utilitarian vehicle with a payload of 1 ton, created by Volkswagen for the markets of developing countries, but not received sufficient demand on any of them, because of which the project folded just a few years after launch. He made his debut in 1976 in Germany under the name Basistransporter (that is, literally "basic Transporter") and was delivered from the factory in Hannover in the form car kits that do not require special skills for assembly. A year later in Mexico organized its own production. 
Machine with torsion bar front suspension and beam with sheet rear springs has an angular cabin (even the wheel arches are not rounded, and all glasses are flat) and a simple frame on which you can install any add-on (for the instance from the ad, this is a wooden platform with removable boards). 
The movement of the Volkswagen EA489 Hormiga is set under the cab 1.6-liter 50-horsepower air-cooled flat-four, combined with a four-speed "mechanics". Drive - front. AT the cabin does not even have a full-fledged dashboard, black vinyl seats (driver's and two-seat sofa) equipped with lap belts security. In the equipment there is a branded floor mat Volkswagen, no comfort options are provided. 
