Just got myself a Tamiya monster truck Splitty, now please excuse my lack of knowledg. Am I correct in saying the multi window versions, with the windows along the roof and in the rear quarters called Sambas? Would like to paint my RC model of one of these in the same colours as one that is in Australia.

So would anyone have a pic of an Australian resident Samba, are there many in OZ? Thank you.......

go on dsk or thesamba for pics , there is local busses some og paint some not

The 'muilti-window' sunroof Deluxe Microbus is commonly known as the Samba in Europe, but was not known by that name in the USA. There it was sold as the Volkswagen Station Wagon.

In Australia our Deluxe Microbuses were made here in Melbourne and didn't have the extra windows or sunroof. Ours were called the Alpine. You could only get the Euro Samba by special import, or by the overseas delivery scheme.

Lots been imported in the years since though.

My fav Samba colour combo

^ I agree, that to me is my fav samba combo. Spent a fair amount of time drooling over that bus at Valla last year.

Thanks for the pic's folks, yep I like the red with black topsides too, so the one behind looks like red with white topsides?

Funny how VW didn't think these would not sell in Oz, small market the reason I guess!

It is actually sealing wax red and chestnut brown on top. It is a dark brown and a lot of people think it is black but it isn't.

It was a very popular colour combination for them.

Yogie

Easy mistake that a lot of people (including me) make. Still looks good though no matter what people think the colour is.

Yogie

I suspect yours may have been an Australian-assembled CKD (special order). From 1955 these were shipped to Clayton from Germany and assembled. After 1960 the panels for the van and window Kombi (and Microbus) were stamped here but as far as I'm aware the Deluxe Panels wer not. May still have been special order CKD? Where did the original owner buy it?

The Australian brochures of the time only showed the Microbus without the skylight windows and sunroof - what we know as the Alpine.

I wish I knew ! previous owner bought her in 1974.....

Does it have Australian componentry? Glass etc? Is there a Volkswagen Australasia Ltd build plate, or is it Volkswagen Germany? Is there any original sales paperwork to go with it? I would be very interested to know the history, as if it was made in Australia I'll need to adjust my history notes!

It would have been very expensive foe VW Clayton to change the tooling to stamp out a short run of roof panels with windows, sunroof etc, which is why I believed that wasn't done here. I could be wrong...

Pat has an Aussie Samba...

The RHD Aussie delivered '54 Samba I had, had Sekurit glass, and the rear corner glass was plastic (no brand IIRC).

NO such thing as a SAMBA in Australia its a Pommy term for a Deluxe micro bus

a SAMBA is a South American dance or a Pommy barstardisation term for a VW micro bus

yes i have seen the Deluxe micro Bus its is VERY nice


I had a 21 window several years ago great colour scheme the Manly tan n Black

Hi Matt, yes that says your '54 is a German one, which I would expect for that vintage. In 1954 the Clayton factory was still owned by Martin and King Pty Ltd (railway carriage makers) and was still being set up for VW CKD kit assembly.

The first Beetles were assembled in June 1954, and the first Transporter kits weren't assembled until early 1955. Until then all the Aussie-sold models were fully imported. After 1959 body panels were stamped locally - in fact the Transporter panels were the first to be set up for local production, being the easiest (flattest) to set up for.

Now while some Deluxe Microbuses ('Sambas') were sold through local VW dealers, but these would have been special orders (like Karmann Ghias), or overseas delivery scheme models. The normal Australian Microbuses were the non-skylight non-sunroof 'Alpine' versions. From Phatrat's info above I am now trying to establish whether the few 'Sambas' that were sold here were assembled in Melbourne (CKD) or were fully imported.

The 'Samba' roof panels were NOT stamped here, as the factory would not have bought the expensive extra tooling required for such a small turnover. I suspect they imported kits from Germany, if they did assemble them in Melbourne.

Are there any Deluxe Microbuses with Australian build plates and local content?

According to official factory production records there were NIL skylighted Microbuses ( Sambas or whatever they wanted to be called) assembled on the production line here at Clayton.
As Phil points outs Claytion produced the "Alpine" microbuses with 324 units (Model 244) up until the end of the splitties with 262 of these units produced by December 1965.
The last Splitty Microbus was produced in August 1966.

If the vehicles has been imported as CKD they would have been included in the Clayton production numbers .
countrybuggybill

Hi Bill, thanks for confirming what I suspected. In fact the number of Microbuses built in Australia is very tiny, compared with the rest of the Transporter range (vans, pickups, window-vans and Kombis) sold here. In the years 1962-63-64-65, for example, the FCAI's Australian sales figures for VW Transporters (total) is 3,234; 4,408; 5,655 and 4,311, totalling 17,608 over those four years.

Bill's figures say 262 Microbuses iup to the end of 1965 - meaning that Microbuses made up just 1.49% of Transporter sales - or just 1 in every 67 sold.

Compare that with the USA, where the 'chicken tax' prevented the commercial versions of the Transporter from being sold at all - the Deluxe Microbus ('VW Statation Wagon') was the only version avaiable.

Just another example of how Australian VW history was very different from the USA.

When people talk about 'Aussie Sambas' I wonder if they are confusing Aussie-sold (fully imported special order or overseas delivery scheme, tiny numbers) with Aussie-built, which didn't happen.

chicken tax?

well it was like this...The Americans would charge you for how many chickens you could stuff inside a vehicle !!

of course kombies could fit the most chickens there for had the highest tax....am I right ??

and I still love my stateless delux 23 window microbus...wearever she is from......

The 'Chicken Tax' story is fairly complex, but basically prior to the 1960s chicken was an expensive delicacy food in Europe.Then in the early 1960s the USA started to export huge quantities of cheap chicken to Europe, greatly dropping chicken prices and increasing chicken consumption in Europe. Soon the US had more than half the European market, which caused uproar among the European chicken producers.

The EU wanted self-sufficiency in food produce where possible, so they introduced tariffs on US chicken to make it more expensive. The US producers then lost so much money that the US Government accused the Europeans of unfair trade, and even threatened to withdraw NATO troops (during the height of the cold war). Diplomatic talks failed to solve the problem, so in 1963 the US imposed similar tariffs on major imported goods from Europe - some other food products, and small light trucks (which Detroit didn't make).

This had an immediate effect on Volkswagen imports to the US - the Commercial versions of the Transporter (vans, pickups) were suddenly 25% more expensive, and VW of America discontinued them. From 1963 on, only the Deluxe Microbus (and its later Caravelle 'Vanagon' and 'Eurovan' equivalent) were able to be sold in the US (as passenger cars, exempt from the tax). This tax still applies today, which is why VW doesn't sell the Caddy, T5 Transporter, Crafter or Amarok in the US at all. Other makers have gotten around the tax by CKD assembling their light trucks in the US, or even manufacturing them locally. VW America tried that with the Golf (Rabbit) pickup by making it in Pennsylvania in the early 1980s but with limited success. It was, however, the reason that VW's advertising agency DDB pushed the Microbus so hard in so many ads in the early 1960s - they wanted Microbus sales to make up for the lost commercial sales.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax 

Ummmm, wasn't this a thread about paint colours. Back on track!

The thread has the heading 'Aussie Sambas?', so any questions posted and answers given on that topic are relevant.

Chicken tax. I learn a little every day.

Couldn't you tell if it was Aussie built/assembled by the colour?