This might not be news for some of you but Iwas at a melb vw wrecked in the west this week to put some cash on a car and when I was there I was intriduced to few pommy guys who were buying everything insite we got talking and they were from a well known Pommy company who advertise in Volksworld,anyway they are here there are also a group of indonesions and some yanks,they have shipping containers stored of pipe road in North Altona the yard is full of VW the containers are full of everything you can think off.They are heading all the the way around oz.With lists off every VW dealership,Mechanics,Wreckers trading posts right hand drive splits and ovals notches squares and a karman its all leaving our shores.Buy what you can dudes because there aint gonna be much left the final straw was a pile of beetle bodies stripped off parts and eady to be crushed.WAKE UP AUSTRALIA!:jesus

We have had a guy called Rob from Pukka vw in England come over to Adelaide and buy up every split , even the wrecks that you wouldnt touch with a barge pole.
He advertises on the Split Screen Van Club site and he is taking 30 splits at a time , he is here 2-3 times a year, that is a lot of splits.
Some people say well at least they are getting repaired and put on the road!!!!
But what happens when there is none left over here, or we need parts are we going to import them back.
Cheers
Dave:cry

Yeh thats my whole point I wonder if the shops selling them off realize that that one less VW dub they could be servicing.I just want my children to enjoy VW too ..

AAAARRRGGHHH ! these buggers are going to buy all the Ovals before Iget enough $$ and time to get one .....

The more over there, the less over here. Its a simple equation isnt it ?

i once spoke to a japanese guy who offered to buy my beetle, he said he sends container loads of VWs over to japan. they fetch a suprisingly high price over there, especially 50's models like Ovals, enough to trade in for a nice series 6 mazda RX-7.
by the way, i declined his offer...
it will be a shame if we lose alot of our old cars to other countries, why dont they have enough in europe and the states?? or is it they want RHD VWs?

Sad isn't it.

It like selling you ankles because your sitting down.

One day we will realise our beers empty.:jesus

Yep, I'm aware of someone just closing the container doors on $20,000 worth of split kombi bits bound for England.

re: Japan. Luckily its cheaper for the Japanese to import directly from the US, as the US & Japan have a free trade agreement and hence no import duties. A japanese buyer would have to pay more for shipping from Japan, and import duties. We are RHD like Japan, but most people over there aren't bothered driving a LHD car.

Steve

Someone send those POMMIES up here to Sydney we have 2 splits we want to sell.

I dunno if it's someone from this site, but I think this is pretty lame trying to flog this off as a unique car to the Americans just to get some more cash.
"Here is your chance to own a very rare, unique vehicle in excellent order. It is an Australian built factory RHD Beetle, built in late 1967. "
It's a nice car and I hate to say it, but that car ain't 7000au worth.
Stop sending our cars away!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1873861300 

I dont like it as much as the next guy, but at the end of the day, If you advertise to sell your car hear, and no-one wants it, well your gonna look at every avenue to sell it, especially when you need the cash. And lets be honest for a second, these cars are worth a lot more in the states or japan, compared to here!!!!! I hate the fact that looking for parts is a pain in the ass, but at the end of the day, we are still better off than trying to do up a Steeled body rod!!! I will probably upset people with these comments, but sometimes things are out of our control!!

If anyone here has ever sold VW's privately, 80% of the people who come to check them out have next to no money and are just pure tire kickers or would rather fish around your garage. By the time a guy from teh UK comes through with the $$$ you're after and not only that but will pay for any parts you don't want it's kind of a relief.

This happens with any car that is aging, I grew up with VW's purely because people gave them to my parents who could'nt afforda anything else. If that was now they'd be driving around in late 80's commodores, old toyotas, etc... The same thing happened in the 70's with all the cars that were being turned into lead sleds from the 50's as soon as the cult following started they shot up in price, the "old school" rodders and cruisers were a pain in the a$$ compared to enthusiasts from overseas.

As much as we don't like it, it's how things go.
Let's not slam "POMMIES" who save up all their dosh to come over and buy cars off people whom in their opinion sometimes could'nt be fussed either way. And there are alot of Brit's out here who live here, just love VW's and doing up cool cars those guys will always appreciate the cars more than us (who have been into it our whole lives) and make for some great fellow enthusiasts.

Besides, think how much more your car will be worth when it's rarer!

Cam,
I think you have missed the point.
I am a Pom and I live here because it is the best country in the world.
I am not having a go at the guys who come over and buy a vehicle for themselves,,, I am pissed off at the people that come over here and buy 30-40 splits at a time and then go to the wreckers and buy all there parts.
If this continues, what happens when I need a part that is not made anymore and the wreckers have sold them all overseas????.
I will have to pay a hell of a lot more and end up buying it from overseas,.

All I was saying is where will it end
Cheers
Dave:jesus

As a pommie I love my dubs with a passion and now enjoy the fact that now that I've made australia my home I don't have as many issues with rust on my dubs

I do feel for your / our vw's going out of the country and the spares fastly been soaked up with them

I went home for a month long visit last june and went to a couple of shows, (now ive only been living in australia since march this year ) now heres what I noticed: Normally I would search the swap meet as soon as I get there and then look at the cars on show for the other half of the day. This year it was impossable to search all of the swap meet as there was so much stuff for sale and prices where also more competative
you could literally look for a engine lid for an oval on one store and then go and look at seven others stalls each with at least one or two lids on there stall.

I was thinking go back two years and you would be lucky to find three to look at .

Now I got speaking to a few traders and there was a trend in what they were saying like "I've been doing this for eight years now and this is the worst year for trade" , "theres been a lot of stuff arriving hear from australia and all over in the last couple of seasons" .

The market for spares has gone stupid and there seems to be a lot more competition jumping on the band wagen.

Hopfully the market will slow down but I dont think that its going to happen before australia has become like the japs have done to the californian market (dried up).

Now theres no fire without fuel....
Take a look at a lot of very reputable vw based buisness in australia and you'll find that the owner's have made there money years ago and are now either looking at other makes to specialize in servicing and repairing as well as what they have always done selling parts and repairing vw's.

Now enter an english man with three forty footers waiting to be filled and a promise of a return jorney within the next six months and the vw man is going to be all two willing to sell those parts which have just sat on the shelves for the last year of two or even longer as the english guy is going to give a good rate in a lump sum, with more to come.

This is all very good at the moment but the spares situation is going to get worse then there's going to less vw's on the roads and less vw related business going on. Apart from the odd couple of busineses retiring from the scene and selling out to "Mr container", the rest of the vw busineses could and proberly will suffer if this carries on.

But that just my thought .......

nick

Kool good to see some different opinions.My parents are english and Im a huge fan of the English kulture Im not dising England>If I lived in England I could get any Kool Accessory I needed to make a Kool Resto kustom.Try doing that in oz try geting a TMI interior or a set of empi 5 spoke repos you want find shit here.But we do have bodies laying around that could be saved with a oxy filler and a welder we never had led sleds here no mercs buicks were imported on a large scale,but we do have splits ovals notchs and the scene only getting bigger In not going to a dkp dairy queen cruise im going on a vw cruises cruise and I wanna see mad cars here in the flesh not in a zine in my dreams. :thumb

I don't like it either....[I will never sell My AutoBug ]... but I do know that they do repair Basket Case VWs in the UK that We wouldn't look at... unless its a Karmann ghia Cabrio or 51 Beetle !!!! the salt on the icy roads over there, eats everything metal... So they are used to doing Very Large restoration work... but IF they are taking OUR SPARES & Good splits etc.... its a different matter.... & it MUST be stopped at ALL costs.... Don't Ask ME how??? and I'm certainly NOT selling any of My duplicate spare parts either... regardless of accent of the buyer ... these people make Me :puke
...... When I read the UK VW Magazines & See all the split window Beetles & Kombis [very early models] My mouth waters and I think that theyare among the Luckiest people alive having all those rare [to Us] VWs... and Now they are NOT satisfied.... with what they have..... I hope they can't find too many old VW dealerships with any parts.....

[Edited on 7-12-2002 by 68AutoBug]

Now thats a colourful motor makes me wanna eat McDonalds

I checked out the guys uk web site and is frightening,i will post it soon.

Damn, I grow weary of this subject.

This sort of scavenging has been going on for years. We haven't ran out of cars yet & I don't think we are about to.

To single out the Poms is wrong to start with.
At least if a car is going to England, there's a better than average chance it will end up back on the road. Because a good one IS rare over there.
I've seen before & after pics of one bus in Scotland, that would have been cut into razor blades over here. An Aussie would not have touched it because WE KNOW THERE IS BETTER ONES AROUND.

A car going to Japan however, will end up a static display, & that's a crime.

This is one of the very few times I agree with Cam.
Put your hand up if you have never left a beetle or a split kombi where it was because it was to pricey, or needed to much work.

Because if you've done that just once & that car is overseas now, what right have you to moan.

Welcome back Spook.

Yeah, well I agree with the arguement, but you all know how I feel about this topic, and feel quite strongly I might add.. :repuke

check out
http://www.coasttocoastkombis.com 
Cheers
Dave

I have a couple of pretty bare, late type 3 wrecks that nobody seems to want. I wouldn't mind selling them to the poms just to get rid of them because nobody else seems to want them and they are going to end up at the tip anyway.

Problem is, if the Poms take too many wrecks or restorable VWs, it makes it that much harder to find a decent one to cut up and turn into a buggy...

part of the problem is that everyone in Oz only wants to pay no more than $5 for anything, and bleat about the cost of stuff.

if you want it to stay here, it needs to be worth something to people, so start buying it yourself, or accept that when someone overseas with the cash wants it, they will buy it.

so start stockpiling and paying real $$$ or get over it.

And you say we whinge

Pommy

We have a small place in Robe SA that has VW parts for sale, he is cheap on his parts.

He has told me that he sells all of the really old stuff overseas and last i heard they were going to come over here and buy the business from him!! then they would really get what they wanted.

Hi there, cool site.

Guys it is just world market forces. If you want the VWs to stay there you need to build up as big a following as there is in the UK.

The UK is (even including Germany) arguably the most mad for Vdubs country on the globe.

The fact you can ship a Split to the UK and still make a profit just shows how much the UK want them... and arn't we all part of the VW family... they go to good homes in the UK.

And the guys who do take them to the UK are making money, sure, fair enough, but they are all VW lovers too. I'm not one of them. But I hope to be soon. Wether it be bringing them from you or the States or wherever.

ONE DUB