The Kübelwagen is a 4-door utility roadster from Volkswagen, built from 1940, in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted. Under the bonnet: 985 cc air-cooled Flat-four engine. Ferdinand Porsche drew it.
How it came about
The Volkswagen Type 82 Kübelwagen (), or simply Kübel, contractions of the original German word Kübelsitzwagen (translated: 'bucket-seat car' – but when the contractions are translated literally a back-formation of 'bucket' or 'tub'-car results), is a military light utility vehicle designed by Ferdinand Porsche and built by Volkswagen during World War II for use by the Nazi German military (both Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS). Based heavily on the Volkswagen Beetle, it was prototyped and first deployed in Poland as the Type 62, but following improvements entered full-scale production as the Type 82. Several derivative models, such as the Kommandeurswagen, were also built in dozens to hundreds. The four-wheel drivetrain that was prototyped in the rejected Type 86 version went into mass production in the Schwimmwagen.
The Type 86 performed better in comparative testing, but the additional costs of the more complex four-wheel drivetrain (both financial, as well as making the light car heavier and thirstier) did not outweigh the benefits from the German viewpoint. The Kübelwagen was intended to be able to be manhandled by its crew if they got stuck. Easily seating four men, the 725 kg (1,600 lb) empty weight Kübel was easier to lift than the 300 kg (660 lb) heavier jeep. The rear bench would seat three in a pinch, for a total of five inside. Before the war, the term Kübelwagen became popular in Germany for light open-topped cross-country and military field cars without doors, because these were typically equipped with bucket seats to help keep occupants on board, necessary in an era
The hardware
Power comes from 985 cc air-cooled Flat-four engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It shifts through a 4-speed manual; / self-locking differential / portal gear reduction by 1.4:1. The layout matters: the engine hangs behind the rear axle, a layout that gives ferocious traction out of a corner and a reputation to match on the way in. The wheelbase is 2400 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Stadt des KDF-Wagens, Germany. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Lincoln Continental, the Chevrolet Stepvan, the Dodge Kingsway — show what else the money bought that year. Its Volkswagen stablemates include the Volkswagen Apollo and the Volkswagen Routan.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Kübelwagen — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.