Detroit Copies VW
Words by Angus MacKenzieThe Dodge A100 was the last in a string of smallish, forward-control pickups launched by Detroit automakers around this time--Jeep had kicked off the vogue in 1956 with the launch of its 4WD Willys FC-150 styled by Brooks Stevens; Ford had followed with the Econoline. GM, most radically of all, used Corvair running gear to produce the rear-engine Chevy Loadside and Rampside pickups, trucks whose layout most closely resembled the inspiration for all these vehicles, VW's Transporter pickup.
Although the A100's power--it used Chrysler's 170- and 225-cubic-inch slant-six engines, mounted between the front seats--and its interior package were perhaps the best of the bunch, consumers' enthusiasm for forward-control trucks lagged behind that of the automakers by the time it launched for 1964. Chevy had already killed off its Corvair-powered pickups, and Econoline pickup sales were slow. Ford axed the Econoline pickup after 1967; the A100 lasted barely two years more.