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                               Country Buggy
A kind of latter-day Kübelwagen, the 1965 through 1968 Australian-made Volkswagen Country Buggy used the Type I Beetle engine and floor pan with Type II Transporter trailing arms on the front and reduction hubs at the rear. These provided good ground clearance (230mm), a very low "stump-puller" gear ratio, and tremendous rough-country climbing ability.
    Country Buggies were fitted with a 1300 cc engine as standard equipment, but a 1200 cc unit was available as an option, apparently for those who thought they couldn't handle the power. The electrical system was 6-volt. The body was designed in Australia and built from folded flat sheet

steel for ease of manufacture and extreme ruggedness; strengthening ribs were included along
the sides, and the very high sills prevented flooding when fording streams.
    Only 1,956 Country Buggies were made, including about 400 left-hand drive examples. The sales debut was April 1 (April Fool's Day), 1965 and they were sold until October, 1968 when low sales volumes and inherent design problems prompted VW Headquarters in Germany to end production. A revenant of the
Country Buggy soldiered on in the Philippines as the Volkswagen-DMG Sakbayan.
     Sakbayan  A contraction of the Tagalog term "Sasakyan nang bayan". Literally, country vehicle. This Philippine-manufactured vehicle was very similar to the Australian Country Buggy. It was powered by a rear-mounted Type I engine, and sported an all-steel body with a canvas top, as seen in the drawing on the left, or with an optional, fully-weatherproof fiberglass top, shown in the photograph below (it looks kind of like a miniature Hummvee, doesn't it?). This vehicle was first introduced in 1969 as the Country Buggy with a 1300 cc engine. It was renamed the Sakbayan 815 in 1972 (1500 cc), and finally in 1973 simply as the Sakbayan (1600 cc).