Imagine you had a time machine.
You could zap yourself back to 1963, and visit the Volkswagen dealer at Hurstville, Swantons Pty Ltd. Apart from brand new VWs, they also sold a range of used cars from their second-hand lot on Forest Rd.
Which of these ones would you be interested in?
I'd go the Kombi...425, with nothing to spend!! 😀
Thanks for sharing, that is GOLD!!
Scarab (aka: Paul)
If you didn't take 425 pounds back with you, you'd have to pay it off at 3 pounds 5 shillings a week.
Now let's see - there were 20 shillings in a pound. So that means 425 divided by 3 and 5/20ths - hmm, 130.78 payments, two and a half years.
Still cheap for a '56 Kombi! No one would have had any idea then that they would have been worth so much now.
Interesting to see that Swantons' used car lot was on Forest Road in the '60s, while their new car lot was at 10 Hudson St. I don't remember the Hudson St premises, which closed in the '70s (the site is a block of units now. The bowling alley nearby is also long gone). I only remember Swantons on Forest Rd, which was where I bought my first VW, my '64, in 1982. Swantons went out of business in the mid '80s; the site is still there but has been divided up into a couple of industrial units, a muffler shop and a car wash.
Remember it well. Directly behind the used car lot on Forest Rd was Swantons' panel shop - I was one of their panel-beaters, in 1963.👍
I probably looked at all of the above, as it was customary to 'check out' the yard at lunch time. They always seemed a 'bit dear', though. If I only knew!😢
Cheers, Greg
I'd rather wear a Beetle out by racing it than by polishing it!
Hi
I worked at spare parts at Swantons when they were in Hudson street, the Hudson street building included spare parts, workshop and new car sales. Not long after I started everything moved around the corner to Forest Road.
I met Greg Mackie for the 1st time at the Swantons Forest road complex.
I remember them filling in the old workshop pits in Hudson Street and they used lots of dead stock to fill the hole before the concrete was poured.
I still see some of the old Swantons employees now & again.
Steve
I also remember the black and white 88 bus, that used to go from Hurstville to Bankstown via Padstow. They always used to have a billboard for Swantons on the back. Unfortunately I never took a photo; nowadays the route is run by Veolia and all the old black and white AEC buses are long gone. I bought a lot of VW spare parts from Swantons in the early '80s. I also 'souvenired' the dealer's VAG sales guide book to the new T3 Transporter...
I have quite a few 1960s newspaper ads for Swantons at home, which I'll post up when I het a chance.
I also remember in 1981, I think it was, when LNC imported a real Audi quattro and took it on a display tour of Sydney VW/Audi dealers. I went to see it at Swantons and took some slides (remember them?). I'll scan them and post them too.
What about the 'Blue Bus'. They were always so clean and well maintained. The depot was in Forest Rd. The best looking buses, though, were on the Hurstville Grove route. They were red / brown, and always gleaming - I think they were polished each weekend.
I'd rather wear a Beetle out by racing it than by polishing it!
