It’s a lot easier to say “Fridolin” than Kleinlieferwagen, which was the official name for Germany’s first purpose-built postal delivery vehicle. Designed by Volkswagen and unveiled in 1965, it supplanted the sea of yellow VW Bugs that the Deutsche Bundespost had been using – a flock that was in itself a more unified approach than the motley crew of electric buggies it employed in the 1920s. Besides, “Fridolin” suits the pug-nosed, awkward but adorable van that Russell Glantz found for us here on eBay. A single bid has been recorded, for a mere $1, reserve not met. Estimates suggest that only about 200 of these little critters have survived out of 7340 produced; perhaps rarity and a notable sale of a modified Fridolin (see below) have informed the selling dealer’s asking price of $80k.
The Fridolin was a welcome addition to the postman’s job. Sliding doors on each side and its low-slung chassis facilitated ingress and egress. The floorpan was mostly flat, thanks to the rear-mounted engine. Plenty of glass and an engine meant for slow city driving made it easier to avoid ball-chasing children darting into narrow streets.
Volkswagen tapped its already-existing models for parts to build the Fridolin. The factory-supplied engine and gearbox were borrowed from the Beetle: a 1200 cc air-cooled flat-four, good for about 34 hp, along with a four-speed manual transaxle. The chassis came from the Karmann Ghia, and the nose is Type 3. The rear body panels were altered from Transporter parts. According to the dealer’s website, this Fridolin now motors with a 1500 cc engine.
Not only does the van have two front seats, but it also provides an abbreviated bench in the rear for passengers or packages. Though the photos show a decent interior coupled with bright, shiny paint, this vehicle deserves a personal inspection given the asking price. I suspect a restoration has been performed, but unfortunately, the seller’s ad tells us almost nothing.
Aside from plying Germany’s roads, the Fridolin also found duty with the Swiss postal service in slightly altered form, and as caddies across airport runway aprons. Comparable sales are rare, but as noted above, this modified ’72 sold for over $74k about two years ago. I shouldn’t be surprised, given the prices for vintage Type 2 vans. What would you pay for this unusual VW?
This is really cool, and I hope the author holds no grudge agin me for the last VW post. Some said, best not to bring that up, but we can’t forget either. In fact, this may shock and amaze you, dads long gone now, and I think I’m finally going to buy a vintage Bug, there are so many coming up. Maybe even trade the Jeep for one,,,that’s right, Mr. Jeep bails for a VW. Why? Because I’ve always wanted one, and more importantly, in this age of mishigosh and auto parts extravaganza, I can’t think of a more simple car to thumb my nose at them.
This vehicle, in true postal form, is all over the place. May I remind you what delivered our mail over the years. It’s clearly a hodge podge of what was left over. The motor looks like a 1500, but the fan shroud looks like a 36 HP. The 1200 was a 36hp to ’61 and 40hp, ’61-’65, I believe the 1300 was 44hp, and the 1500 here, was almost 50hp. Still horribly anemic for a box on the highway, but for it’s intended use, it worked. I doubt a DJ did much better. Apparently as much interest as bug spray in Feb.,,,in Wis. but I never saw one, so worth it right there. Great post.
Dual port intake / heads on this one, possibly a 1600cc-based engine.
Wunderbar! But that’s arguably a LOT of Deutschmarks for prolly the best example on the planet.
If this guy thinks he is going. to get 80k for this he is on a lot of drugs .Rare does not always mean valuable This is 20k tops
This reminds me of a Volkswagen product I recently saw which was created for 3rd world countries. It was a flatbed truck. The cab was as basic as it could possibly be. Flat glass all around and the sheet metal had not one compound curve. Just the normal stiffening ribs needed for flat sheet metal. You could have made it in a high school metal shop.
The surprise was that it was front wheel drive and used the regular air cooled flat four engine located under the cab. I just had to kneel down to see that kind of suspension and steering knuckles it used. The control arms were fabricated from heavy sheet steel, not stamped. And of course it had some kind of CV joints out at the wheel ends of the halfshafts.
I’m surprised this postal wagon didn’t use that front wheel drive configuration.
I forgot to take pictures or make any notes on what it was called. It was part of a display of other VW products at the Kansas City Auto Museum.
This predates the model you’re thinking of, it’s not fwd because they hadn’t done it yet. It was only with VW’s absorption of Auto Union that they started looking at alternatives to the rear engine layout.
You’re referring to the Volkswagen Hormiga, found in Mexico
Imagine this with Ronal teddy bear rims.
What??!! no Tackymeter? ok, but what about the absence of anything resembling a rear view mirror?
And, no shots underneath??
10 bids get it up $2,025, a bitshort of the asking price.
Dual port heads? Looks like it.GLWTA.
Some are stupider than others. This price is absurd, and the slammed one that some sap on BAT paid $74K for is an abomination.
JMO, of coirse…
Oops, missed the spelling there.
Saved one of these rottimg away behind a workshop in southern switzerland about 30 years ago. Hauled it home to northern switzerland on the back of my 1975 VW LT35. A friend gave it a frame of restoration, drove it for many years and finaly sold it about 5 years ago for 15K swiss francs, still in like new condition.
If we knew the prices they go for in the us we would have posted it on BF.
When I lived in Switzerland 70-75, these were used by the PTT. Same general yellow livery. It have enough power to climb the ridges and alps without issue. Mom thought they were cute.
My son fell in love with the Fridolin after we built a ’68 bug as his first car. I linked him to eBay even though it’s been yanked by the seller.
Yes they where all over Switzerland back then.
The Swiss PTT ones where yellow on the bottom half, silver on the top half, devided by a black line.
The steering wheel is on the wrong side to make it a postal van here in the USA. The price is verruckt 🥴 Still a cool ride though 👍
I first saw one of these at a VW show in N.C. I thought it was very cool and very utilitarian but butt ugly! They are rare but rare doesn’t mean desirable. I am a VW nut pretty much and have owned many different models and variations but I don’t want a Fridolin. My current project is a 68 Karmann Ghia that I am putting a 901 5 speed transaxle and a 2.4 type 4 engine and a bunch of other mods. This is a bench model that I’m doing with my son that is studying to be an engineer.
It is an interesting chimera of VW parts. It’s like someone found a bunch of VW models in a junk yard and made one car from them all. I wouldn’t call the car ugly but the asking price is.
Perhaps the result described in the song by Johann Kasse, “Einen Stück Nach dem Anderen”…
I’m always amazed at German-speakers’ love of loooong words!
Kleinlieferwagen = small delivery car.
If you ever studied the German language; their adjectives can get real long.
It is a fairly simple language, but sometimes a descriptive word can be its’ own sentence.
When I was a party animal in the early 80’s; it was all too easy to slip into speaking German
Farferghnugen became Farfrompuken.