Find of the Day: 1977 EA489 Hormiga

Today’s find of the day is another delightfully strange VW that some consider to be the rarest of all VWs: the Basistransporter, or Hormiga, as the Mexicans call it.

This boxy work truck may look like the Transporter, but unlike the Type 2s of the day, this has its air-cooled flat four up front driving the front wheels.

The Hormiga was developed to compete with cheap GM and Ford trucks that were being sold in developing markets. About 2,600 of these were produced as knock-down kits in Germany between 1975 and 1979, and 3,600 were made in Mexico between 1977 and 1979.

The Hormiga is endowed with a 1600cc engine that sits on a simple ladder-frame, and it has torsion bars up front and a beam axle at the back. The beauty of the EA489 is its simplicity. The body has no curves, nor do the windows, and the mechanicals are all from the VW parts bin, so repairs are easy. And that’s why these things are still on the road in Mexico.

This example, for sale on The Samba, is in Arizona right now, and that makes it, according to the ad at least, one of only 15 Hormigas in the country.

The seller says that this Hormiga runs and stops like new and that it’s nearly all original. The pictures of the interior indicate that it’s been taken care of, too.

Unfortunately, the car currently has a Mexican title and, although the seller will ship it, he’ll only do so at the buyer’s expense. Or you could drive it home. It would be a long trip, though, since the Hormiga tops out at 58 mph.

Still, though, how cool would it be to eventually show up to Waterfest with the first front-wheel drive, air cooled VW? No less an authority than Jalopnik’s Jason Torchinsky would be impressed. And isn’t that why we’re really here? To impress strangers on the internet?

The seller of this Basistransporter is asking for $13,000, but it sounds like you could talk him down some.

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