hey knowledgable ones.

when did they stop importing beetles from germany and switch to the knocked down kits
or
was there a time when both made in germany and manufacturued in australia was occuring.

my 69 beetle says made in germany & my brothers whos is also a 69 but says australia.

or is there a web site on the history of manufacture/import somewhere.

thanks

Ask, Phil74Camper
He wil be able to tell you, send him a U2U.
Rob........

Hi guys,

Thanks for the kind comments!

Yes I've sent a message back, but the story at VW Australia in 1968 is this. They were losing heaps of money as they had paid for and built a factory in Melbourne big enough to build 50,000 cars a year, but were selling 11,000. Even in their best year (1964) they only sold 32,000.

So in 1968 they wrote off all the investment in plant and works, and went back to assembling CKD kits from Germany. The Aussie Deluxe Beetle was killed off in March 1968, and the Standard (or Custom) in September 1968. The 1968 'Euro' style Beetle was introduced in March.

Now it took VWA a while to comvert the factory back into an assembly facility. As well, parts of the factory were being converted over to manufacture Datsuns, Volvos and Mercedes trucks! So basically they could not satisfy the market with CKD-assembled cars until the plant came back on stream. So for a few months they imported fully-built 1968 Beetles directly from Germany.

By late '68 the factory was keeping up with CKD assembly, but there were still a few batches of fully-built cars brought in to fill the gaps. In any case, semi-auto Beetles were always fully imported, not assembled here.

It would be interesting to compare the chassis numbers on the two 1968 cars and see how much they differ and which one is older!

Of course, people also bring in their own private imports over the years too...

Phil,

Thanks for also putting it up here so its locked into the archives.

I've got my number & i'll get the bro's and u2u for interests sake.

hs400

Phil, are there any differences by which I could tell where my 68 Beetle was made?

The glass is usually the giveaway. CKD kit cars used Australian glass, and German fully built cars had Securit glass. CKD kit cars also had Australian tyres and batteries and so on, but they won't be original any more! Also check the speedo - CKD cars could have Australian-made instruments. Also check the manufacturer's plate behind the spare tyre.

The Bosch and VDO factories were built in Melbourne in the late 1950s especially to service the VW factory. What a pity VW couldn't make their factory work, like the one in South Africa has.

when my grandfather bought his first beetle it was the transition year from the ovals to the big windows, and according to the salesman, the ovals were the last bugs that were FULLY IMPORTED.

Up to that point, maybe. But VW Australia also imported several Cabriolets for evaluation in 1962, and decided to display them at the Melbourne Motor Show - in late autumn ! Brrr. No further Cabrios were officially imported.

But as i said, the situation changed when VW's manufacturing ended in 1968. Some fully-built Beetles WERE imported then.

The Type 3 TS twin-carb 1600 Fastback of 1966-67 was also fully imported. 1500 sedans and wagons were locally manufactured. After 1968, all Type 3 models were also CKD assembled, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of those were fully imported for a while, in 1968-69 too. Ditto with Kombis.

Thanks Phil, I'll take a look and check it out. :thumb

KK

its the glass that set us off.

all glass except the windscreen (presumably replaced) has vw imprinted & other writing.

lots of other bits have vw imprinted/stamped on them as opposed to the aussie cleanskin.

the id plate says "made in germany" and little things like the points are different between the bro's aust 69 and my 69.