just heard about this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQBF_Uq5pNc 

Go the Vochos

Yep. The same happened in Brazil a few years ago. The beetles ("fuscas") were replaced by VW Golfs ("gols = goals") for much the same reasons.

Sad is'nt it.

turn them in for $1200? Pity its so far away. Would be pretty cool to have a Vocho taxi. You'd have to do something dodgy to register it, but wouldnt be hard.

its a shame theyre not legal on the roads here, they dont meet ADRs

a guy here in ballina has amoungst his collection a 2001 mexi bug with less than 100KMs on the clock cos it cant be reg'd in aus

um.... why?

as previously stated they dont meet the adrs therefore un-registerable with out a huge amount of work

They would probably meet all the ADRs up to about 27 - like the Aussie pre '77 Beetles did - but not most of the modern ADRs brought in since then. Beetles would fail:

ADR 29 - side door strength (intrusion protection)
ADR 34 - child restraint anchorages
ADR 42 - general safety
ADR 66 - seat mounting and anchorage
ADR 69 - front impact occupant protection
ADR 72 - dynamic side impact protection
ADR 73 - offset frontal impact protection
ADR 79 - emission controls
ADR 82 - engine immobilisers
ADR 83 - external noise
ADR 84 - front underrun protection

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/motor/design/adr_online.aspx 

Even with a lot of work, you could only make a Mexi Beetle meet most, not all, of these. How can you make 'crumple zones' for example? How are you going to fit airbags, which are now mandatory? The reality is, that while VW Beetles remain wonderful 'classic' and 'historic' cars, they are utterly obsolete today's modern design standards.

Phil, its interesting that the site has ADR 27 listed as not used.

Cos my 9/74 LBug has 27 on the compliance plate, it and 28 were the 2 ADRs affected by my subaru conversion that the engineer had to OK

i know 28 was noise, but it doesnt really explain on my engineer certificate what 27 was for

It'd be nice to import them as spare parts tho
local wreckers here seems to run out of vw parts pretty fast then we'd have to wait for another one to come by

you'd just have to import a left hand drive 77 floorpan as well.

So out of all the cars in Mexico, the VW beetle pollutes more than the big 6-8 cylinder cars and other older cars?
I dunno Like whas been said, its a pity they can't be brought over to Australia (or any other country).
Would it be possible to be sneaky enough to ship one over here and get a RWC or are inspectors not that gullable

Such a shame...

Hi Joel, yes I also noticed that ADR 27 is not used now. It was to do with emission levels. I do remember that the 27A revision for 1976 was the death of the Beetle in Australia. VWA decided that it was not worth the cost to modify the locally built car to meet the tougher requirement. So production ended in July 1976. The Kombi, and the Golf/Passat, on the other hand were able to be modified to meet ADR 27A.

Without reading every ADR in detail, it seems to me that the newer ADR 79 probably replaced ADR 27, particularly in regard to lead-free petrol and cats that were necessary from the late 1980s on.

Yes, the Mexi Beetle produces way more pollution than modern 6 and 8 cylinder cars - current Falcons and Commodores are required by law to meet the ADRs. Beetles could not meet the ADRs of 1976, let alone the ADRs of 2010. And there's nothing anyone can do about it. Stll, at least the new Mexi taxis will still be VWs - just Golfs and jettas from now on.

from what i can gather looking at at a few websites it was to do with charcoal canisters and such

it wasnt long after my bug they started putting canisters in them.
i did put the subaru one in although the engineer said i didnt require it

funny though in the 60s vws were considered as one of the cleanest burnign engines

True. VWs in the '50s were also regarded as being roomy, safe, fast and quiet (compared with the Morris Minors, Austin A40s and so on of the day). But they were slipping behind by the mid '60s. Our Beetle sales peaked in 1964 - US sales peaked in '68, while world Beetle sales peaked in '71. Technology moves on...

It might have been possible to keep the Aussie Beetle going for a little while, using US-style fuel injection and cat exhausts etc etc. But the minimal sales of Beetles here by then made it uneconomic. They would need to have been fully imported after 1976 anyway, since Nissan owned the factory and all VW assembly ended in early 1977. The German Beetle ended the following year. VW's future was with the Golf.

it would have been a wasted effort, sales still wouldnt have picked up when golf's were so much better equipped, nicer to drive and for not much more $$

Such a shame.... It was maybe the only reason I'd go to Mexico lol

Maybe we should all plan a hiest... get a massive freighter and steal the Bugs to Australia!!!!!

I was told that Mexican beetles that were sold in the Phillipines
didn't last long... only a few years...

so, a used mexican beetle wasn't worth much compared to an old German made one..

If You see cars made in the 40s 50s and 60s... [in movies]
most used to blow out blue smoke on start up and acceleration etc... Even expensive cars...

LEE

I've been told Gary at Wolfsburg Automotove in Geelong has one of the last mexican Beetles. But of course, it cannot be registered. It's possible however that he may be able to register it when it turns 25 years old, on historic rego.

I dunno about VW's, but there are quite a few 90's Minis on Australian roads that somehow have the chassis number and compliance plate of an Aussie built 70's car....

You can now get a 97-2000 Mini on SEVS compliance, so no need for those shenanigans anymore. But at least the Mini meant EU and Japanese standards (EFI, Cat, Airbags, crash standards etc) so it's probably far easier than a Beetle to comply one.

Cheers,