Who knows how many early kombis are left in Australia. I have heard that there is about 10,000 registered kombis all up.
But as I see over 10 bays to 1 split, does that mean there is less than 1000 registered splits?

:bounce

Should start with barndoors as there are less of them,I've seen documents that say 299 came to Australia in1954,then some say around 700 or so.
Does anyone know the facts on this forum?
Rob k do you know?

NOT ENOUGH!!!

Less than there should be!

Well I've got two of them

Next time you go out for a drive, tally up all the kombi's you see. I bet you'll see between 10-20 bays to 1 Split.
That could mean there are as little as 500 registered splits!

I recon I'd see 200 bays before I'd see a split bus,and I'm being fairdinkum serious.

saw three on the weekend. two in tweed heads, one in Bangalow NSW, and i have two.

wouldn't splits be left in the garage for a sunday drive and bays be driven daily thus proportionally more bays are seen

nah drive my split every day and luv it. yahoooo!!!.:bounce :bounce life if great ain't it.!!

no gotta drive em man... enjoy the moment. i just saw one while in taree. i know of three up there. 2 rego'd one not. the not is a '60 delux. the two rego'd are a panel 67 and a 64 standard.

Mine is an import from Belgium... and it rocks !
57 Cal look

I am not sure where you would get this sort of information from - the number of VW models still on our roads.

Each state keeps their own records, so you would have to approach each state for their own dtata. The NSW RTA can give registration numbers out by marque, but not by model. I checked with them last year, and I think there were around 25,000 VWs of all kinds on NSW roads. No more detailed information is available.

2001 was the first year in memory that the number of VWs on NSW roads actually increased slightly over the previous year, as many of them die each year. VW now sells over 10,000 new cars each year in Australia (say 4500 in NSW at a guess), which means that they need to sell that many to replace all the old VWs that are dying each year.

VW only sold 75,000 Kombis in Australia from 1954 to 1979 (Wheels magazine figure). I would be very surprised if there are more than 200 registered pre '67 Kombis left in Australia, but no doubt there are plenty more in garages, yards and sheds around the country.

know a guy with 27 sitting in his shed. He he he:bounce

We should start a register of old splits.

I've got one, a 65 devon camper split originally from England.

Is your devon camper a blue and white one?

Like this?

Dave

Nope its like this:-



Bought it off the 4th owner here in Australia. The original owner in the UK gave it to his son in the early 70's and his son drove it down through Europe and through Africa to South Africa before shipping it to Oz when he migrated here.

It even has the original awning and full camper interior.

Regards

Steve

i see two splitties just about everyday in my travels so i reckon the ratio might be a little off for mine :p

I have a splitty, and two bays, so that stuffs my ratio...and I live in Byron Bay, the capital of Australia for feral hippies destroying bay wndow Kombi's...

I can't tell you how many splits you have left over there in oz but i can tell you how many and what type of splits were exported to oz from germany.
in 1953 you had 4 heehee and the next year you had 701 imported from germany after that you started to build em yourselves in ckd form and in 1954 you imported 1,385 kits then in 58 you vw australia was formed.
then in 1961 you had your own bodyshop.
i have production figures for 55' to 61 aswell
55=546
56=2989
57=3072
58=2895
59=3255
60=3944
61=2549
and approximatly 55,000 splits rolled off the production line in oz.
hope this info is of use, proberbly not but oh well
i got it from a very good book called "vw transporter and microbus" by a guy called david eccles who is a vw guru over here in the uk.
not sure if its available in oz tho.

Thanks for that info, I've never seen a year-by-year breakdown of Type 2 sales in Australia before. It really should be easier to establish than Beetle figures, as Kombis were never fully manufactured here. They were only ever assembled from CKD kits, with local content like glass, rubber and trim. This includes Kombis up to 1976, when local VW assembly ended. As far as I can tell, only Beetle body panels were pressed here, not Kombi or Type 3.

Those yearly figures make sense. See the rise in 1959-60 - the Snowy Mountains Scheme bought a fleet of Kombis about that time, as did the Australian defence forces (Army, Navy and Air Force). There was a recession in 1961, which would explain the dip after that. I would be keen to see yearly figures after that. I think VW sold around 8,000 Kombis in 1964, our best-ever year, when the factory had been considerably expanded.

Even today VW is not selling more than about 1,000 T4 Transporters a year here.

I have a 57 Split and a 73 Westy, I think ther are alot of splits in garages being slowly restored, like mine , but there is also the "Club Registered" Splits that only come out in Summer and shows.

Those sales numbers quoted for commercial vehicles( not production numbers) are spot on based on a 1963 VW Australia document.
As a matter of further interest they respresent a shares of the total Commercial Vehicle market as below ( I have thown in Beetles for comparison)
TYPE 1
1954 299 0.5% 1746
1955 546 0.8% 5805
1956 2989 4.8% 9230
1957 3072 5.2% 10384
1958 2895 4.6% 13759
1959 3255 4.6% 17747
1960 3944 6.0% 24652
1961 2549 5.2% 15254
1962 3234 5.7% 21370

Good luck to someone who will keep a Register. I maintain the Country Buggy Register and those cars are like rocking horse shit to find but the Register changes every week.

BTW, I have a 1958 Camper for the Register.
Bill.

Here are some more official Sales numbers for splitties

1963 2641
1964 2569
1965 2280
1966 1966
1967 2026 ( stated as preliminary)

Someone can do the sums with the previous post and we have total local

BTW, the highest selling years for Commercial Vehicles into Government departments( excluding Defence) between 1961 and 1967 was in 1967 with 477 new sales. Next best year was 237 in 1961.

Between 1961 and 1967 there were 270 CBU (completely built up) Commercial Vehicles exported by VWA

Would you be able to get figures for registered splitties from each state. I would imagine so

But then there are all the ones, as mentioned, sitting in sheds or in paddocks

Ok, they may be registered under vans but you could tell by the year if they were a splittie wouldn't you?

On the road figures would be cool anyway:thumb

in 1960/61 a new body press shop was built and started to press transporter panels in clayton it was the largest press in australia so they could press the roof panel in one go and the third largest press shop in australia. and in 64 you did start to build vw's fully according to the book i have as vw germany made a huge investment and vw australasia was formed.
some of the numbers i gave in the previous post were to meet demand in other near by countries such as new guinea, fiji, western samoa and the soloman islands, so not all those splits would have ended up in oz.
you also supplied new zeland with parts and ckd kits.
if your interested i can try to scan or copy all this info on aussie splits and send it on to somebody in oz.
you ended up localy sourcing upto 40% of parts for transporters and the beetle upto 90% local sourced parts.

hope this may be of use to you.