VintageBus.com Image Gallery - Bus Clones

Pix of bus-like vehicles. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, and man of VW's period competitors tried to emulate their sucess with the transporter. Even Chrysler is a modern day hanger-on, claiming to have invented the minivan (VW 1949), and claiming to have invented the double-door (VW 1953).

Rick Alexander http://WWW.brubakerbox.com

Rick Alexander http://WWW.brubakerbox.com The Box is said to be the first mini van. I have heard from numerous sources including Curtis Brubaker that Lee Iacoca (sp?) had the Brubaker poster (I'm still looking for one) on his office wall for years prior to the Chrysler Caravan. I heard a story last weekend at the Carlisle show from a personal friend of Todd Gerstenberger (Brubaker's associate). It seems that VW was offered an opportunity to produce the Box. They turned it down because of the Bus. It seems that if the Box and the Bus were side by side, people would pass the bus up to see the Box and that apparently scared the crap out of VW. Now just some anecdotes for you. I was driving through one of our larger towns near here (30K) and a woman with an arm load of groceries walked into a phone pole while looking at the car. I stopped to see if everything was alright and soon had a crowd that took me an hour to get away from. So much for doing the right thing. Another story is from this time last year. I was driving to PA for the Carlisle show. There was an explored that had been shadowing me for about ten miles. You know the one, out front, to the left, to the right, behind. As we approached a construction zone I looked over to see him looking at me with a cheshire cat like grin. Bang, bang, bang he hit those rubber barrels and I never saw him again. Well I hope there's something here for you. I've always said that it has to be DIFFERENT to get my garage space. I keep telling my wife that Detroit never built anything that couldn't sit out in the rain.