Alongside the Beetle, Volkswagen's Kombi is one of the world's most iconic vehicles thanks to massive production numbers, and well as becoming a worldwide icon back in the 1960s.
Long before those long-haired hippies got their hands on Volkswagen's bus, the very first Transporter rolled out of the factory in 1950, and is still on the road more than 70 years later.
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Named "Sofie" by one of its previous owners, this dove blue panel van wears chassis number 20-1880, and came to existence on August 5, 1950. After leaving the Wolfsburg factory, it was delivered to Hildesheim where it entered into the commercial sector.
After 23 years of hard work, the van disappeared into private collections, with no records kept as to who owned it. It's unclear as to whether these owners were aware of Sophie's significance, but after reappearing in 1992, it was advertised as having the earliest known VIN number.
Whether the seller was asking too much, or it just wasn't marketed well enough, Sophie sat on the market for a while, but soon enough, a VW collector in Denmark got wind of the listing.
Tonny L. rung the seller almost instantly, and bought the van sight unseen before making the trek down to Germany. Sophie was then loaded up onto the back of a tow truck, and taken up to her new Scandinavian home.
Thanks to sitting around for almost 20 years, the Kombi was in dire need of significant work, and between 2000 and 2003, a full restoration took place. After the work was completed, Tonny L. covered 20,000km in Sophie before she was sold again.
This time, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles' Classic Vehicles department managed to buy the Kombi back. Since 2014, it has been in this collection, and it doesn't look like it's going to sell again anytime soon.
