Video: Tuning Thursdays: The “Kombi” of Men at Work’s “Down Under”

Hello all, and welcome back to Tuning Thursdays, where you can kick back, imbibe your preferred libations, and plan to plan what you’ll do for the rest of the day. Last week, we reminisced alongside Bob Seger with “Night Moves,” recalling the best part of a ’60 Impala: its backseat.

This time around, we’re taking it back to the early ’80s and far across the Pacific to recall the trippy rock hit that was “Down Under” by the Aussie sensation, Men at Work. Taking number 3 on the track listing of their debut album, Business as Usual, the song was the brainchild of vocalist Colin Hay and lead guitarist Ron Strykert as they lamented the over-development of their country and its loss of soul.

Men at WorkYet perhaps more lamentable to us gearheads would be the loss of the radiator as evidenced by the “fried-out” state of the narrator’s “kombi.” We know all you out there are probably pounding on your keyboards furiously, “BUT THE KOMBI IS A VOLKSWAGEN!!!111!”

The Opel Combo D. Blows your mind, doesn’t it? Photo: MotorTrend

Yes, the Kombi was a Type 2 “Bus” made popular in Australia for its cheap price (in large part thanks to its air-cooled engine), ample size, and robust simplicity. Also, hotboxing. With such traits and market cornering, Volkswagen held the market for several years in Oceania, yet it also spawned the fascination with “combo” vans, also known as leisure activity vehicles (LAVs).

Holden, GM’s emissary of American excellence to Australia, responded in kind in 1994 with its own LAV, the Combo B, powered by any variety of inline-4 engines, with a couple that came in diesel and turbocharged diesel applications. The Combo D of today, now an Opel and Vauxhall nameplate, still sports the I4 but can use natural gas in addition to regular gasoline and diesel thanks to the Fiat-built FIRE engines.

They’re not fast and they’re not expensive, but combo vans have staying power in foreign countries that treasure utility over get-up-and-go. Two years ago, some people seemed to think Americans still haven’t gotten over our van craze yet, and that we were ready for another wave of them. Those people work at Chrysler, and that’s all we have to say about that.

Thanks for tuning in this week. We’ll see you next time.

About the author

David Chick

David Chick comes to us ready for adventure. With passions that span clean and fast Corvettes all the way to down and dirty off-road vehicles (just ask him about his dream Jurassic Park Explorer), David's eclectic tastes lend well to his multiple automotive writing passions.
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