The Volkswagen Type 3 is a compact car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen from 1961 to 1973. Introduced at the 1961 Frankfurt International Motor Show, the IAA, the Type 3 was marketed as the Volkswagen 1500 and later as the Volkswagen 1600, in two-door Notchback, Fastback, and Variant body styles, the latter marketed as the 'Squareback' in the United States.
The Type 3 diversified Volkswagen's product range beyond the existing models—the Type 1 Beetles, Type 14 Karmann Ghia, Type 2 vans and pickups—while retaining Volkswagen's hallmark engineering features: the air-cooled rear-engine, rear-wheel drive train, body-on-chassis construction (with a backbone chassis integrated into the car's floorpan), as well as torsion bar front and rear suspension.
Despite using the Beetle's 2.40 m (94 in) wheelbase, the Type 3 was conceived as a larger car, offering a larger engine and increased cargo and passenger volume—the latter from its increased length and width as well as from its slab-sided, Ponton styling, maximizing the platform's footprint.
