Hi all
looking at getting a birth certificate for my kombi,
What has been your recent experience with the process?
On the US forums they are talking about a 6 months+ wait
Has that been the same for us down under ?
Thanx
Chris

Waste of your money
The VW group do not have records for Australian VW's
Unless yours is an import they will not be able to help you

Mine is an import so i guess its a go go.
I thought only beetles were assembled here

Beetles, Kombis, Type 3s and Country Buggies were assembled here. You can tell by the colours.

Mine is mountain red

How do you know it is an import?

Its a Westy

More like PNG !!

Well if it's a German-made VW, you shouldn't have any problems getting a certificate with meaningful data.

The cost is 50 Euro (around $73). Here's the link - the website says there can be a delay of up to five months. Let us know how you go.

http://automuseum.volkswagen.de/en/certificates-and-data-sheets.html 

I sent away for a certificate for my 73 Type III Sqr'back. I always thought it was a fully imported car - being one of the last ever Type III's in the Australian marketplace for the 1973 year & thinking Clayton Vic had ceased by then. They had ceased manufacturing, but continued assembly only of CKD kit cars until the mid 70's. Have since found out its a Clayton, Victoria assembled car judging by its colour (only Australia had Kalahari Tan) and the compliance plate. But...My certificate from Germany has my VIN/Chassis # on it, denotes the car is a 1600 Sqrback but does not identify the colour. Given my car is Kalahari Tan which was only a colour for the Australian market, Im thinking that VW may have kept a record of VIN/Chassis # as they rolled of the line in Germany and that this would tell them engine configuration etc, which is all on the certificate, but not colour as this would've happened in Australia. I could be wrong...but then why did they send me a certificate matching my VIN/Chassis if they had no record. There couldn't be two chassis of the same model in the same year for them to be mixed up surely? The dates for manufacture and departure from Germany on the certificate (February and March 1973 respectively) also chronologically align with the date the Aussie compliance plate was stamped (6/1973) and the date my Mother purchased and registered the car (12/7/73). If anyone has any info they can add to the story I would be grateful as its almost impossible to source anything from VW other than the certificate they actually sent me!

They guessed.

I have heard from lots of people that the Volkswagenwerks museum only has limited information in their records. I also heard that the staff doing the certificates is very minimal. Hence the long time in getting one. I have heard that people who's VW had optional extras when purchased is NOT recorded. They say it was fitted with option W124 [for example] is not known. Remember all the data was recorded on paper. Probably some was hand written...
Your Clayton assembled type 3 squareback -- Chassis may have come from Germany - interesting to see that they actually had the dates....

Does your type 3 have type 3 badges on the front guards?
and/or does it have the red/clear night light on the front guards near the door?? they were operated by the blinker switch when the ignition was OFF...
as in some European countries it was law to have a night light on when parked on a street.. [small parking light]

I had a 1970 squareback that had those night lights.

LEE

The Clayton plant ended local manufacture in 1968 - that is, stamping all the body and chassis panels using Australian steel. VW had been under the federal government's 'Plan A' tariff scheme, which allowed the lowest sales tax possible and unlimited production/sales, so long as local content was at least 90%. VW lost money on this scheme after 1965 as their sales dropped. All the stamping machinery was removed and sold off.

From 1968 until 1976, the factory assembled CKD kits. These were raw stamped in Germany and shipped out to Australia in large crates for assembly. The basic German panels and mechanical components were mixed with locally-made parts such as trim, paint, cloth, tyres, batteries and so on. This came under the Government's 'SV Plan' which allowed a maximum of 7.500 on one 'model' to be assembled per year at low tariff rates, so long as local content was 60% or more. Fully imported models were taxed at the highest rate.

So the CKD models were stamped in Germany and assembled in Australia. Wolfsburg allocated the chassis numbers and was aware that they were 'export' models. The certificate therefore has the correct model and chassis numbers and dates the batches of kits that were shipped from Germany, but final details like paint and trim (done in Clayton) are unknown to Wolfsburg - or anywhere else. Engines and gearboxes were part of the CKD kits, but Wolfsburg can't know what specific engine was bolted to what specific chassis in Melbourne. (CKD kits were NOT one car per crate. Similar parts were shipped together. It was usually 12-15 crates contained the parts for 10 vehicles).

It took 6-8 weeks to ship the crates out from Germany to Australia, and another month or two to assemble the vehicle and complete it on the Clayton lines, and consign it for sale, so those dates make sense. VW was having troubles selling vehicles here by the early 1970s, so finished vehicles often sat in distribution yards and dealer lots for months before they were sold - they weren't snapped up straight away.

Moral - Certificates are well worthwhile for fully GERMAN-MADE, fully imported vehicles - Karmann Ghias, Beetle cabrios, Westfalia campers, 411/412s, 1954 and earlier Beetles, 1963 Type 3s, 1965 1500S sedans, some 1966 TL Fastbacks, 1968-70 semi-auto Beetles, and all models since 1977. Certificates will give incomplete or incorrect information for CKD assembled German-made vehicles - most models sold here from 1954-60 and 1968-76. Certificates will give incomplete, incorrect or no data at all for fully manufactured Australian VWs, 1960-68.