I had VW Brasilia in Bolivia.
Same platform as VW beetle (the old one). Rear wheels, no diffs, independent suspension. Plenty of clearance, and fairly light, and good tires. I got to places where even 4x4 had trouble to get into (jungle, mountains etc). It would slide over mud, float over water, jump over rocks. I loved it. However it was a workhorse, no heating, no air, everything manual, no good seals. No electronic assistance for anything. Could be fixed with bit of wood and wire. Air cooled engine so no water issues. It was like driving kubelwagen, which actually had lots of common with it. Only problem I got, was that eventually all driving on bad roads started to show up in metal fatigue, started getting cracks here and there.
Got stuck in river beds now and then, but that was due to wrong air pressure, I did not know much about air pressure then. Here are some pics from Amazon jungle on my way to Noel Kempff National Park, getting stuck crossing dry river beds, fixing bend steering rod, and up in the Andes
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Now that's cool! Looks like a modified squareback front end, and I agree about the offroad prowess of veedubs, there was an old guy here in town for years that hunted and prospected all over the state in a bug he converted to a flatbed, it was pretty cool and the old fart saw more of this country than just about every one of these fools driving around in their big jacked up bro trucks ever will, it's all about getting out there, not about how you get there or what you get there in, if you only have 2wd then go and be careful but for gods sake go!