1968 T2 Single Cab (Type 2)

While 1968's cultural drama unfolded on television — the assassinations, the protests, the conventions — the T2 Single Cab was updated and introduced to a market that needed a simple, capable, compact work truck. Better than what it replaced. More prepared for what was coming.

The Bay Window transformed the T2's face. On the Single Cab, this meant a working truck with substantially better forward visibility — critical for tight job sites, narrow delivery routes, and the loading dock maneuvers that defined a typical day in the life of this vehicle.

The T2 Single Cab would continue through the 1970s essentially unchanged in concept. This 1968 first-year version established the platform that would prove durable enough to outlast the decade.

A 1584cc air-cooled flat-four making 47 horsepower. Four-speed manual gearbox. The engine code B in this configuration. Torsion bar front suspension. The rear suspension specification is notable: this 1968 single cab retained a swing axle configuration in some markets — the transition from swing axle to full IRS across the T2 range wasn't instantaneous.

The cab: two adults, tight. The Bay Window windshield: a single curved pane giving dramatically better forward visibility than the T1's split arrangement. The load bed: wooden slats, fold-down sides, drop-down tailgate. Same fundamental platform as the T1 Single Cab, updated mechanically and visually.

Available in left-hand or right-hand drive. Colors: working truck colors. The same practical palette that had served the T1 Single Cab: whites, greys, the occasional red or blue.

The Bay Window on a working truck. Previous single cabs had the T1's split windshield — functional but limiting. The T2's single curved pane gave the Single Cab driver a clear, uninterrupted view of everything ahead. On a vehicle that spent its days navigating tight spaces with a load in the bed, visibility wasn't an aesthetic preference. It was a practical necessity.

The 1600cc engine's improved low-end torque relative to the 1500cc T1 unit. The T2's engine family was designed with a flatter torque curve — more useful in the stop-and-go, load-and-haul environment of commercial truck use than the peakier T1 1500cc.

The beginning of a new generation's parts and service ecosystem. The T2 platform would be produced through 1979 (and beyond in some markets), building an enormous parts availability network and mechanic familiarity base that benefits T2 owners to this day.

1968 was culturally volcanic. The assassination of two American leaders in one year. The largest anti-war protests in US history. Global student uprisings from Paris to Mexico City to Tokyo. The T2 Single Cab was aware of none of this. It was introduced to do a job, and the job was indifferent to the political climate.

But the commercial world was absorbing the 1968 upheavals. Small business owners, many of whom drove their own Single Cabs, were watching the news and making decisions. Some were expanding. Some were contracting. All of them needed a reliable truck that could be maintained without specialized equipment or dealership service.

The T2 Single Cab's reliability was its cultural contribution: stable, consistent, dependable in an unstable year. Not everything needs to be a symbol. Some things just need to work.

The Bay Window's visibility improvement was immediately felt from the driver's seat. Where the T1 split windshield had created a visual interruption, the T2 opened everything up. Job site navigation became easier. Loading dock positioning became more precise. The everyday practicality of the working truck improved.

The 47 horsepower from the 1584cc was adequate for the job — not fast, but capable of maintaining highway speeds with a reasonable load. The torque characteristics of the 1600cc engine family were well-suited to truck use: strong enough to move the vehicle from stops under load, maintained enough at highway speeds to keep up with traffic.

Today: a 1968 T2 Single Cab is a working truck that still works. Load it, use it, maintain it. The Bay Window face and the T2 mechanical package make it more practical than the T1 for actual use. And on the road, that Bay Window face draws more attention from people who understand what they're looking at than anything in the immediate vicinity.

Commercial operators upgrading from T1 Single Cabs. New buyers attracted by the improved specification. Fleet managers evaluating the T2 platform for multi-vehicle purchasing. The market was commercial first and individual second, as it had always been for the Single Cab.

The T2's improved safety and visibility specifications made it easier to justify to insurance companies and fleet administrators who applied formal evaluation criteria. The T1's swing axle rear suspension had occasionally appeared in liability discussions. The T2's improvements addressed this.

Individual buyers continued to discover the Single Cab's utility. By 1968, the VW Bus family had a broad enough cultural presence that buyers were looking beyond the Microbus configuration. The Single Cab's practicality was becoming visible to buyers who'd previously defaulted to the passenger variants.

The 1968 T2 Single Cab is the most accessible entry point into Bay Window pickup ownership — less expensive than T1 examples, less rare than the '68 Double Cab, but carrying the first-year T2 premium. Values have been stable and gradually increasing as T1 prices push more buyers into the T2 market.

Market values (2025): Restored examples: $30,000-$50,000. Excellent drivers: $18,000-$30,000. Good drivers: $9,000-$18,000. Projects: $4,000-$10,000.

Inspect the Bay Window lower corners carefully — a T2-specific rust point. Check the load bed frame and the bolting structure behind the cab. Verify the rear suspension specification for this specific example — the 1968 transition year had variation in rear suspension type, and understanding what you have matters for both driving character and parts sourcing.

The 1968 T2 Single Cab is the working truck that got better at its job without changing its job description. Better visibility. More capable engine. Improved handling. The same flat bed. The same honest purpose.

It's not the most romantic member of the Bus family. It was never intended to be. It was intended to haul things efficiently and reliably in a compact package. It does this.

First-year Bay Window on a working truck. That's a specific thing worth having.