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Whereabouts of last Australian Beetle??
68AutoBug - September 17th, 2002 at 05:47 PM

Does anyone know the whereabouts of the Last Australian Made Beetle??
The LAST Mini made in Australia is in the Museum at Braidwood SA. Also the first Magna Wagon and a Leyland Force 7...
So, I have a photo of the last Mini.... but alas.. NO Last Beetle....:(

1303Steve - September 17th, 2002 at 09:45 PM

I have an article on it, it was very unflattering. It still had crossply tyres and would have handled like a pig.

68AutoBug - September 17th, 2002 at 10:33 PM

Do You know What Year it was, Steve
:) and I suppose it was sold to some one, or taken to the Wolfsburg Museum!!!
or has it just Disappeared ??:o

vw54 - September 18th, 2002 at 08:43 AM

I believe it was purchased by some one in Canberra, n recently traded hands

Monsterbus - September 18th, 2002 at 09:18 AM

A friend of mine had the first super bug in the country. It was on the stand at the sydney motorshow and his parents bought it. About 7 yrs ago he got it resprayed etc etc but after a few years the rust came back and it went to VW heaven, had to pay someone to take it away. He still has the magazine article on it though :)

decked dubby - September 18th, 2002 at 09:39 AM

Geez thats a shame.:(

JETTABOY - September 18th, 2002 at 10:32 AM

Whats the big deal about cross plys...at least it would have looked original!!!

decked dubby - September 18th, 2002 at 10:34 AM

Ahhh, an original spec beetle with crossply tyres...fantastic !!:thumb

aussiebug - September 18th, 2002 at 02:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 68AutoBug
Do You know What Year it was, Steve
:) and I suppose it was sold to some one, or taken to the Wolfsburg Museum!!!
or has it just Disappeared ??:o


Lee, are you asking about hte last Australian MADE beetle, or the last beetle SOLD in Aus?

The last aussie MADE beetle would have to be a 67, since from 68 they were either assembled from CKD kits (completely knocked down)...that's the manuals, or fully imported (the semi-autos).

The last beetle sold in Aus was (fading memory at work here) an olive green 1976 model which was sitting in a Sydney VW dealers window well into 1977, then I think, bought by another dealer who used it as a dispaly model for some years, and it was finally sold to Joe Public with about 25 miles on it - one of the car mags did an article on it a few years ago (wish I could remember which mag!).

If I remember right, the new owner was going to keep it as an "unused" car, so the miles did no grow - just a km here and there for shows and such.

Rob
Rob and Dave's aircooled VW pages
Repairs and maintenance for the home mechanic
http://www.geocities.com/aussiebug1970/ 

70AutoStik - September 19th, 2002 at 01:39 AM

Monsterbus: and he's still your friend???

:mad:

(sounds like a VW murderer!)

Monsterbus - September 19th, 2002 at 08:57 AM

Yeah Yeah, believe me though it was to far gone for a guy who, at that stage, washed cars for a living. I wasn't really into bugs at the time but it was the first car I drove on the road. I really wish I'd stripped it down at least though and saved some of it. Maybe if he'd had it garaged it would have lasted longer as well as. Ahhhh well, they can't all last forever.

Cheers
Steve

Phil74Camper - September 19th, 2002 at 05:20 PM

As far as I can tell, no effort was made to preserve the last manufactured Beetle in 1968; it would have just been sold to the public as normal. It would have been a 'Custom' or Standard model, as they were manufactured for a few months longer than the more plush Deluxe.

Rob I remember the article you mention - the Olive Green '76 belonged to Greg Cusack, who used to be the VW distributor in the ACT and Queanbeyan. While it's a beautiful, zero-mileage example of a '76, it wasn't the very last one.

The LAST Aussie made '76 was white and was sold in March 1977. Wheels magazine did an article on it at the time, and for a few years it was on display at Greens Motorcade, a car museum west of Liverpool in Sydney. Greens went bust in the mid '80s and the collection of classic cars was auctioned off. I read somewhere that none other than John Laws bought the white '76, and had it in his own collection for a while.

John Laws buys and sells cars regularly, so I don't know if he still has it, or when he might have sold it. He did auction off some of his cars a couple of years ago, but the '76 wasn't sold in that lot. One of his other Beetles was - a '54 with VW-1 NSW plates. He also sold a late '50s cabrio at the same time.