In the just over five years that the international version of ViaRETRO has been going, it seems we have yet to feature one of the best-known, best-loved, most numerous and most unexceptional classics of all as one of our Prime Finds – the Volkswagen Beetle. Well, that changes this week.
The VW Beetle is arguably the ultimate unexceptional classic, but with a cult following that goes back to the 1960’s, and it’s also – along with the Mini, 2CV and Ford Model T – the ultimate classless car, driven by rich and not so rich, the famous and the unknown. Hippies loved it – and it’s big brother minivan – as did students, its affordability and ease of maintenance making it many young people’s first car.
It has one of the most recognisable silhouettes of any kind, let alone of a car, on the planet – and even though none have been made in almost 20 years (I’m discounting the two revived versions, neither of which really work), and almost everyone – even Generation Z – knows what a Beetle looks like.
Officially designated as the Type 1, its rounded shape resulted in it being called der Käfer in Germany, the Beetle in the UK, the Bug in North America and various other insect-related nicknames elsewhere around the world.
The Beetle had a production run that lasted 65 years with 21,529,464 built in factories around the world and it long held the title of the world’s biggest selling car – until it was surpassed by the Toyota Corolla, although you could argue, and I will – that there have been many very different iterations of the Japanese car whereas the Beetle, despite being regularly updated, remained fundamentally the same.
Disney made a movie star out of the Beetle with the Love Bug films, featuring Herbie, a Beetle with a mind of it’s own – which I loved as a boy, though even I knew there was no way a car I knew to be slow could overtake all manner of E-types, Corvettes and so on, but they were fun.
In many ways, it’s not a particularly good car – it’s slow, noisy, basic – but it did what it was designed to do; transport families cheaply and reliably. VW ads used to wittily make virtues of some of the Beetle’s limitations and quirks – here are a few examples.
There was some controversy around who was actually the originator of the Beetle’s distinctive silhouette. Ferdinand Porsche is credited with the design of the Beetle itself, but that shape was originally seen some years earlier, in fact.
Hungarian Béla Barényi – the inventor of passive safety in motor cars – first came up with the basic shape for what became the Beetle in 1925, five years before Porsche came up with his design, and is now legally credited with being the originator of the design for the Beetle.
There were also a couple of other possible “Inspirations” for Ferdinand Porsche – the Tatra 97 and Mercedes-Benz Type 170H both appeared before the Beetle; certainly the Beetle wasn’t created in a vacuum…
A few years later, in 1931, Porsche developed the Type 12 for Zündapp; even then, it was intended as a car for everyman, well before Hitler came up with the idea – one of the only two good ideas that he had, the other being the Autobahn – but it didn’t see production.
Hitler ordered Porsche to develop a Volkswagen – literally translated, a People’s Car – in 1934, and it had to meet certain criteria. It had to be a basic vehicle that could carry two adults and three children at 100 km/h (62 mph), be able to cruise at that speed on Germany’s new Autobahns, and it had to be economical, using no more than 7 litres of fuel per 100 km (39 mpg UK). Components had to be quickly and easily repaired or replaced, and the engine had to be air-cooled to prevent freezing in Germany’s cold winters.
The windscreen was flat and therefore cheap and easy to replace, and the body was attached to the chassis by just 18 bolts, making panel replacement straightforward.
Various prototypes and development models were built by Porsche over the next few years and the car was ready for production in 1938, but only a couple of hundred were built before the outbreak of war necessitated a change to building military vehicles.
Production had just started when WW2 disrupted everything, and the new factory in Fallersleben, Wolfsburg was converted to building military vehicles. Mass production of civilian Beetles didn’t start until 1946, though these were mostly for British military personnel and was dedicated fully to civilian cars in 1947,
The earliest cars had split rear oval windows, which were replaced with single ovals, in 1952/53, and our Prime Find is one of those. Engines were flat-four, air-cooled units of 1192 cc producing 26bhp – top speed was 71mph/115kmh, and acceleration from a standstill to 60mph took about a day and a half.
As the decades moved on, despite regular upgrades such as more powerful engines, better brakes, more standard equipment and so on, the Beetle was overtaken by more modern designs from Europe and Japan, and when VW introduced the Golf in 1974, the Beetle Era was effectively over, even though it continued to be built in Germany until 1978. yet it continued to be built in Brazil and Mexico among other countries until 2003.
With so many still available, only certain versions have reached the point where they fetch serious money. In fact, really only one, that being the Karmann-built convertible – some of these have been fetching upwards of £20k for a few years now – there’s currently one for sale in The NLs for over EUR 50,000, albeit fully restored.
Besides the Karmann cars – and I guess I should include the Karmann Ghia coupés, since they are Beetle-based – perhaps the most desirable Beetles are the “Oval Window” models, built between 1946 and 1953
Earlier 1950’s examples are also fetching up to £30k, and it’s one of these that is our Prime Find this week. It’s on sale through H and H auctions, and goes under the hammer at their October 19th sale at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.
Our car is a 1956 Oval Window model, which was originally delivered to New Zealand in 1956 and stayed with the same family for 50 years, after which it was acquired by the present owner and vendor. It’s not quite original, having had the 1192cc engine replaced with a 1490cc , but otherwise is believed to be original. Certainly the green paint and tan interior are stated as being original,
Looking at the photos we have borrowed from the auctioneer’s website, the paintwork certainly looks 66 years old, but in a good way – there’s a bit of surface rust showing through around the edges of some panels eg the bonnet. There’s not a lot of chrome on a Beetle, but what there is, looks perfectly OK, and the bumpers in particular look very good.
The interior shows signs of wear, with a tear on one side of the driver’s seat, but is largely OK, and there’s some rust showing on the painted metal fascia, but overall, it wears its years well.
The odometer reading is 81,204km or a little over 50,000 miles – this is not warranted and I would have thought unlikely, but Beetles are renowned for their ability to run for many thousands of miles, and the engine in this one is “only” 55 years old…One of the most interesting things about this Beetle is the original and complete Hazet toolkit, which is mounted inside the spare wheel – there can’t be too many of these still around!
The auctioneers have put an estimate range of £15,000 to £18,000 on our Prime Find – which might be on the low side – and you can see the full lot entry and many more photographs here. For me, it’s hard to know what would be the best thing to do with this car – keep as is for as long as possible, gently and gradually renovate as necessary, or is it time to give it the full restoration treatment? I think I’d opt for the first of those options, as it would be a shame to remove the visible history of the car; it’s been left unrestored for so long without disintegrating, perhaps best to leave a while longer?
It’ll be interesting to see what this well-preserved early People’s Car fetches on the 19th – watch this space, and if you’re interested in bidding for it, as usual, we recommend arranging prior inspection if possible.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk