How many were made?

845 posts · joined Jan 2003 · 7 Feb 2003, 11:37 am

#24962

Hey Dubbaz,

Anyone know the stats of how many 15window Splitz were made? And how many were exported to Oz?
I know they're a rare van just wondering how rare...

Cheers in advance
W

SKEWtYpe3 Custom Title Time!

1,859 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 7 Feb 2003, 11:55 am

#24968

not enough surely, i want one like this

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........!

:bounce :bounce :bounce :bounce

5PL1TDCS10N Insano Dub Head

845 posts · joined Jan 2003 · 7 Feb 2003, 12:14 pm

#24977

Hee Hee Hee....only one way to get that lower....bury it!
Channelled and air bagged I presume.....NICE
I wonder If the cops would make you put the yellow sticker/defect notice on the glass yourself?!! hahahahaha

W

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 7 Feb 2003, 12:43 pm

#24987

Series 1 Kombis were not 'exported' to Australia. They were made at the Australian VW factory in Clayton, a suburb in south-west Melbourne.

The factory was established in 1954, and started by assembling CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kits from Germany. This was done for both Type 1 Beetles and Type 2 Transporters. Gradually the factory started sourcing parts from local companies - things like batteries, electrics, cloth, glass, rubber...so as time went on the 'local content' slowly increased.

By 1959 the factory was actually stamping metal body panels (for Beetles anyway) and the cars could be said to be 'manufactured' rather than just 'assembled'. For Beetles the local content had already passed 50%, but Transporters weren't localised to quite the same extent, owing to the smaller turnover.

VW's biggest selling year in Australia was 1964, when nearly 25,000 Beetles and some 12,000 Transporters were sold. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how many of those were Deluxe Microbuses as I don't have any detailed breakdown by model type. But they would not have been in the majority; most of the Australian VW Transporters were sold as working vehicles in fleets, both government and private. They were certainly not rare at the time. VW once had 75% of the Australian commercial vehicle market, and only slipped below 50% in the late '60s. Series 1 Kombis are only rare now as they have nearly all worn out after a long and successful working life.

As for total sales, I only know that 75,000 Kombis have been sold in Australia from 1955 to 1979.

SKEWtYpe3 Custom Title Time!

1,859 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 8 Feb 2003, 1:52 am

#25126

nice run down phil
do u have a net site, if not you should do an aussie vw info file site !
:bounce

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 10 Feb 2003, 11:46 am

#25498

Thanks! I do write articles for the Club Veedub website but that's about it so far.

Actually I'm not as smart as I thought I was - Clayton is in SOUTH-EAST Melbourne, on the Princes Hwy on the way to Dandenong. Not SW as I wrote!

aussiebug Officially Full-On Dubber

246 posts · joined Sep 2002 · 10 Feb 2003, 2:20 pm

#25525

SKEWtYpe3 wrote:nice run down phil
do u have a net site, if not you should do an aussie vw info file site !
:bounce

Phil is co-author of the book "Knowing Australian Volkswagens". It's a great read.

Out of print now I think, but check for it at your local library and if they don't have it, ask them to check on the interlibrary exchange system.

Box Hill library in Vic has a copy (that's the one I read a few years ago - sent to me in Adelaide).

And a further stat from Phil's book - a total of 260,055 bugs were made at the Clayton plant. Seems to me that a LOT of them are still alive and kicking :-)

Rob
Rob and Dave's aircooled VW pages
Repairs and maintenance for the home mechanic
http://www.vw-resource.com

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 11 Feb 2003, 8:33 am

#25680

Yes that figure came from a VW Australia (LNC Industries) press release from 1977, when the last Beetle had just been sold. Unfortunately most of VW's press releases were written in general terms, so that newspapers would publish them. Detailed statistical breakdowns of how many of which models were sold wasn't done, sadly.

I am working on an update of the book, which I hope to have published later this year. Thanks for your kind comments Rob, but when I read the book again now, 10 years after I wrote it, parts of it are not very good!

SKEWtYpe3 Custom Title Time!

1,859 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 11 Feb 2003, 11:07 pm

#25831

phil if thast all u got wrong then i reckon u are pretty damn cluey
anyway i dont know my north and south but i know where clayton is so thats cool too !

after the restoration is complete i am going to by a few GOOD vw books, your is on the list phil !
:bounce

Jay_1965vw Chatting Babe

1,429 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 12 Feb 2003, 12:01 am

#25838

I have a copy of Phil's book and I refer to it quite often... its nice to have something that has local information!!! 🙂

Great that you are getting closer with the revised version Phil 😀

*waves*

Jay

Good to be home!

Part of Melbourne's Unreal Aircooled VW Community