{"id":18880,"date":"2019-05-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/volkswagen-ea-128-2\/"},"modified":"2020-10-06T12:01:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T12:01:06","slug":"volkswagen-ea-128-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/en\/volkswagen-ea-128-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen EA 128"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let’s go back to the 1960s for a moment and take a brief critical look at the Volkswagen model range. To speak of something comparable of a ‘model range’ in 1960 is rather a generous interpretation of these words with the three model series Beetle, Karmann-Ghia (Type 14) and Transporter T1. A year later the mid-sized Type 3 (1500) and the bigger Karmann-Ghia (Type 34) debuted, from 1968 there was also a vehicle in the upper middle class with the Type 4 (411\/412). However, as early as about 1962, there were plans to enter the upper luxury class with the, so to speak, ‘Type 5’. This project was developed under the internal abbreviation EA 128 (EA stands for ‘Entwicklungsauftrag’, which means ‘development order’). It reached prototype stage, but was finally stopped by Heinrich Nordhoff, then CEO of Volkswagen.

In contrast to the Phaeton, which was developed about 40 years later, the EA 128 wouldn’t have arrived at the dealers only as a sedan, but also as a Variant. This would have been the first four-door estate from Wolfsburg, as the Variant versions of Type 3 and Type 4 were only available with two side doors. So it took until the arrival of the first Passat Variant in 1974, before the rear passengers could comfortably board the car via their own doors. To date, at least two prototypes of the EA 128 have survived, both part of the car collection in the Stiftung AutoMuseum Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, showing both planned body versions. At our visit only the sedan was shown in the exhibition part of the museum. Visually, the car anticipates the angularly enclosed double headlights of the VW 412 offered from 1972. On all four corners large orange indicator lights are mounted, which are identical parts front and rear. When looking at the compact taillights, it becomes clear that the prototypes didn’t reflect the final production design. In addition, VW deliberately renounced any brand logos on the bodywork in order to test the 4.7-meter-long vehicle in public.<\/p>\n\n\n

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