Brazil could bend the rules to keep Volkswagen Kombi alive.

Introduced in 1950

Brazilian authorities consider bending the rules in order to let the Volkswagen Kombi live on.

Volkswagen had to stop production of the iconic Kombi in Brazil on December 20 as a result of a new safety regulation which will be implemented starting January 1, 2014 requiring all new vehicles to come with driver and passenger airbags as well as an ABS system. Volkswagen said that it would require a "new car" to make the Kombi meet the added requirements so they had no other way but to axe the model and they did it with a Last Edition.

There's still hope for the Kombi as Brazil's finance minister Guido Mantega said he will investigate the possibility of exempting the Volkswagen Kombi from the new safety regulations, motivating his desire by saying the vehicle's original design could not include the aforementioned safety features in 1950 when the model was introduced.

Source: indianautosblog.com