OK just wondering where the oldest VW is in Australia

It can be club or non club.

Running would be best

or on in a shed or garage but nice

Lloyd remembers a '46 beetle that used to be at Victorian events back in the 80's. Is it still around?

Any idea??:sandrine

Military or just a plain old Beetle ???

Any VW, just the oldest one around:thumb

p.s. But does anyone remember a '46 beetle it Day Of's back in the '80? What happened to it?:jesus

[Edited on 14-7-2003 by jenz58]

Well, it's definately not me.

not me i own a bus :P

Mine looks old - but it's just stress.

The oldest I've seen was a 48 I think. That was at the AllVWForum at Penrith. I could be wrong with the model - as it didn't have anything offroad on it , it was only a cursory glance of feigned appreciation. Like acknowledging an ancestor "Well done ole chap!"

Gotta respect the precursor or the ultimate offroad 2wd.

cmon Dave that would have to be you wouldnt it?
or perhaps Muller has an oldie?

What is the oldest VW sold new in Australia and when was VW first sold in Australia? VW club is celebrating 2003 as 50 years of VW in Australia, but I've been told Kombi's sold new in Perth in 1951.

Muller ???

The oldest i have is 56.

I know of a few early cars like Kubles n Swims

i thought you might have had older Dave.
yeah what about Steve Muller, he has quite a few cars doesnt he?

Theres a 49 Split in Sydney and i suspose that the Swims n Kubles are around 44 or so making them the oldest.

I dont know about oldest but we own a '53 thats meant to be the first beetle to be sold in a dealership in Vic.

There is a bit of legend a guy keeps telling me about in Country Vic of have a 1946 Beetle... In the shed.. In pieces.. Complete.

So Jim that would not be an Urban myth, but more of a Rural one?

yeah steve muller has a 52 split cabrio beetle

[size=0] Rod Farrell has a totally restored 1951 Beetle in a red carpeted room on club plates in Muswellbrook NSW.... Beautiful.... He took it tothe Nationals in Sydney this Year... [/size]:thumb:thumb:bounce:bounce:bounce:bounce:bounce:bounce

On the 19th of May 1943, my Kubel was made & delivered to the Waffen SS in Oranienburg-coincidentally where they have just recently found the remains of an Australian crewed Lancaster bomber that had crashed in a forrest.
However the one in the War Museum in Canberra must be a 1940 version because it came out of North Africa & from memory it has the old style dash with the KDF speedo.
So we ALL own it!
Crappy job of resto though- we should demand a refund!

Graeme Lees has a 45' model bug which was brought back by the Aussie Army for evaluation. It sat on King Island rusting away for many years. Oldest bug as far as I am concerned!

Guy

Yeah i think you would be right with that Bug, I had forgotten about that one.

I think the oldest kombi is a 1952 Ambulance. It was at the DOTVW in Melbourne a couple of years ago.

Eggy

That was imported from Brazil, from memory, that same year..

I think the ambo was from portugal

I have a May 63 built notch i know that 63 was the first year of Rhd but does any know of an older one?

Cool, thanks guys

Maybe that rural myth is the '46 Lloyd remembers:jesus

The first VWs sold in Australia were imported by Spencer Motors in Melbourne. Lionel Spencer imported two Beetles in October 1953 and they were sold through his Melbourne dealership. He used to be a DKW dealer before that. Local assembly of German CKD kits began in JUne 1954.

No one knows if those first official cars still exist.

There are plenty of earlier VWs here, but all have been privately imported, either by individuals or by the military. The army did bring in two VW Beetles for evaluation in 1945 but both cars were run into the ground. Graham Lees owns the remains of one of them, which as Guy said had been rotting in a field in Tasmania.

In 1961 VW Australia celebrated their 100,000th Australian sale by looking for the oldest running VW in Australia. They mounted a huge campaign in the media and advertised widely for owners of old VWs to come forward. Eventually they found a German couple called Mr and Mrs Haenel in country Victoria, who owned a 1946 Beetle that they had brought with them when they migrated from Germany in 1951. VW Australia swapped them their 1946 Beetle for the brand new 100,000th Beetle. It was quite a ceremony, hosted by the then Victorian Premier, Sir Henry Bolte.

VW Australia displayed the 1946 car for a number of years, and it could be seen at their Clayton headquarters. It was sold at some stage, probably when the plant was sold to Nissan, and it ended up at Gilltrap's Car Museum at the Gold Coast in Queensland. When that museum went out of business in the early 1980s, it was bought by the car museum in York, WA, where it was on display until recently. They have just expanded to a new facility in Fremantle in the last few months, and last I heard the 1946 car has been moved there. It's in beautiful condition, in blue-grey paint. I saw it in York myself in 1987. The museum's webpage is

http://www.yorkwa.com.au/Motor.Museum/index.htm 

But unfortunately doesn't feature the VW.

Since then several private collectors have imported World War 2 Kubels and Schwimmwagens and other old VWs too. Impossible to say now which one is the oldest, but the one owned by the War Memorial in Canberra is indeed a veteran of the North African campaign in 1941, rather than the European or Russian fronts of 1944 and 1945.

Steve Muller has a 1951 split window that needs resto for sale u2u me for details

but its expensive but then a again its a pice of history so its a bargain considering

Ur an vw encyclopedia Phil:beer

Thanks - I've just been elected Club Veedub Trivia Pro for the umpteenth year in a row. Not as many beers in it as Birchall being voted president though!

Yes interesting point - split window Beetles (ie. pre 1953) were never sold in Australia. So any you see will have been privately imported at some stage.

Phil, great history:thumb

OK, what do you know about the history of type 3's in Australia??

Not as much - they aren't as well documented as Beetles. I do have a few VWA press releases at home though. What would you like to know??

I have no idea where the oldest Type 3 in Australia is !!

Heres one for you Phil.

How can I tell if my 57 kombi was built here or imported as a CKD.
Cheers
Dave