You see some funny things on eBay. Recently I was trawling through the popular online auction site. I was looking at all sorts of things, from musical instruments to vehicles. The particular thing that I saw, I saw in the vehicles section. The results were sorted to go from low to high and the particular vehicle that caught my eye was on the first page.

tribute van

I was amazed at the lameness that I was confronted with, well you can see the picture yourself. The VW camper van is a design classic and an icon of the 20^th Century. The properly old-school ones had a distinctive split windscreen and started to be manufactured in 1950. The model was known as the Volkswagen Type 2 . The Volkswagen Type 1 was the Beetle, and the early camper vans clearly share some design DNA with them .

authentic van action

The van found itself entering the popular consciousness in the years after it was introduced, becoming known as the ‘hippy bus’. The vehicle’s popularity spread worldwide – in Australia the vans were known as the Volkswagen Kombi. The vans were immortalised by that name in the song by men at work, and one is featured in the video.

I had no idea that these ‘fake’ VW  Camper vans existed at all – but I  found out that there are quite a few of them about.  These look-a-like vans (that don’t really look that much alike to be honest) are  made by Japanese company Subaru  with the line being known as the Samba.

The Subaru Samba is produced for the Japanese market and with their very small modern engines are certain to be more fuel efficient. The classic VW vans were air-cooled, and anyone who has driven on a hot day will have seen antique VW Camper vans broken down by the side of the road. The Subaru tribute to the VW vans are probably considerably more reliable with their modern Japanese engineering.

When you think about getting your hands on a VW van, most people probably think ‘van hire’ – but I found this one picture of a guy who thought ‘van  lower’.  Mechanic Andy Saunders made a few modifications to his 1980 VW camper van.  The result: the world lowest van. At just 1 metre tall this van is unlikely to scrape its roof on the way into a  multi-storey car park, but is also a little lacking in head-room.

low rise van action