Hi,

I'm new to this great forum and pretty much new to the wonderful world of aircooled Volkswagens.

My question regards my 11/1972 Superbug, which I recently purchased. according to the VW club of Victoria’s Aussie Beetle history page, the 15 Millionth Commemorative Edition had a medallion on the glove box lid and carpet. My car does not have the medallion but it does have carpet however this may have been fitted many years after it was made.

What part of 1972 were the 15 Millionth Commemorative Edition sold? Or was there a option of buying a standard 1972 Superbug or the Commemorative Edition?

Regards

1972super

The Commemorative Beetle was a short assembly run of 1,500 cars, with the medallion and an improved level of interior trim. They were assembled in Melbourne and sold through VW dealers as normal cars. Once they were gone, that was it. Apart from the few cosmetic additions, they were identical with normal VWs of that year.

These badges turn up at swapmeets - don't worry, you will find one.

They were made to commemmorate the Beetle passing the Model T Ford's production record of 15,007,033, which VW did in February 1972. Australian cars were assembled from CKD kits from Germany, with some local components like glass, tyres and batteries. Changes made to German models often took four or five months to reach here, so I would surprised if the Commemmorative Model appeared before June 1972.

[Edited on 1-5-2003 by Phil74Camper]

I have a 15 millioneth too! Its got a Britax sunroof that I thought came as a dealer option. Nothing much else that different!

Heres a pic of the badge:-

I'm still not 100% sure if it is a 15 Millionth Commemorative Edition or not. It was assembled in November of 1972, but seeing it has not evidence of a badge on the glove box lid it is probably not. I don't really care if it's not, I'm just curious.

Maybe an expert can have a look at the Albury gathering in June.

The dash also had a special gunmetal strip across it and on the glove box lid

the purchaser also got a similar badge as a key fob and there was a booklet out as well Ive only seen one booklet over the years but plenty of key fobs on Ebay

The glove box lid comes up at swaps there all numbered 1- 1500

Was this the same as the 'Marathon' or Championship Beetle special edition that came out in Europe? 'cos I had one of those as my first car (back in the UK). That was made to commemorate passing the model T (over there at least) and they were all light metallic blue(marathon metallic) with ten spoke steel wheels, rubber inserts in the bumpers. Mine was 1300cc twin port with torsion bar front suspension not a super and I believe they only produced two thousand in RHD.

similar but the one hes talking about is the local version and was a couple of months before

I'd give anything to get another set of those wheels. Would you you believe I had them widened to 6" at the front and 8" at the rear and then gave them away in the end

I bought one yesterday and the strips on the dash are different to a normal beetle and the glove box lid and the grills next to the speedo are black my car is red

A freind of mine has only the glovebox lid (thats all that left of the car ) with the # 1 stamped
as a single numeral only, no zeros. I have a photo of it but will not produce well enough to put up. Cheers Jason

I have one too, number 176 as I remember-before some (I suspect) Beastie Boys fans broke in and nicked both that and the bonnet badge-it was the 80s. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement-or confirm its number? Its absence irks me.

In the badge pic it looks like its rolling on Riviera's.

Hi

I have a glove box lid but no badge somewhere in my stash. I thought that they also had carpet instead of of rubber mats.

I found 15 million badge in a 1500 Beetle years ago.

Steve

Gday, I have a 71 super bug and was wondering if any 71's could have had the 15million badge on them. Or was it 72 build only?
regards Craig

it was only limited number of production that was about 2 months at about may 72 i think from memory.

I was working(!) at the factory in 1972 and they started producing them straight after the Xmas break.

got a lid and a badge if anyone wants
offers ?

Long shot I know but anyone out there want to part with a 15 millionth commemorative model keyring?

No 1971 cars with this edition - the Model T record wasn't passed until February 1972.

From memory they were released about February/March.

They had carpets and red striped tyres (radials?).

When counting the number of beetles produced.....

did they count the beetles made in South Africa and Brazil??
and Mexico etc???

it seems they may have counted the Aussie made beetles???

With the figure of 1500 commemorative 1972 Super bugs, was that the number sold in Australia???

I didn't know about the carpet....

LEE

When I worked in a VW dealer in the 70s I ordered a genuine VW carpet kit in, very well made, it have been kept in stock from the 15 million production