Volkswagen had a different following back in the '60s... the old air cooled stuff was the polar opposite of the newer (Audi derived) models. Tough, SIMPLE, sturdy, and easy to keep going.
If I had to traverse Africa, and I was offered a "new" 1965 Transporter or a "new" 2015 Transporter... I'd take the '65 in a heartbeat. May not be as fast, or as comfortable, but you'll never have to worry about any warning lights coming on, a ball joint popping out of socket from smashing into a deep rut in what passes for a road, etc. There are STILL rear engined air cooled Transporters on the roads in certain parts of Africa, as well as old carburetted Land Rovers, and old W115 MB models. Sometimes the old tech just works better in those extreme areas. The old air cooled stuff was so popular in Australia that Volkswagen built a plant there to assemble Beetles and Transporters... later on, they not only stopped building stuff there, they stopped selling stuff there altogether save for commercial vehicles. They eventually returned, but will never enjoy the market share they once had.
I think the Middle East areas have been taken over by Japanese and Korean brands largely because they are good and building things the same way Volkswagen used to: simple, cheap, reliable. Volkswagen has taken the complexity so far to the extreme and slowly but surely has removed the holdover old models from their portfolio. The Beetle was still being built largely as it had been for decades up until 2003. The T2 Transporter (albeir with an inline water cooled engine) was still in production in Brazil until just recently... a design that debuted in 1968! The T3 Transporter (again, with an updated version of an older inline water cooled engine) was being built in South Africa until 2005, alongside the A1 Golf (called the CityGolf, the car we knew of as the Rabbit)... a design from 1974.
Toyota is still building J70 Land Cruisers, a design that dates back to 1984, which is itself a facelifted modernized version of the old J40 that dates back to 1960!
Growing concern for safety, emissions, and modern conveniences are what is pushing these models away. Shame, because they are good designs. I'd buy a new diesel F60 Land Cruiser today if I could.