Hello,

What year do you think this bug is?

1525272 is it a 55? or 56? or other?

Thanks Guys:

late 56 sep or oct

mine is 122==== 28 jun 56

The 1957 'model year' chassis numbers ran from 1394920 to 1774680, which yours falls into. So for the 1957 model year, VW made 379,760 Beetles. Yours was made 130,352 into the year - 34.3% of the year.

The Volkswagenwerk had already switched over to the August-July model year (for export models - German domestic cars kept the Jan-Dec model year until 1960). So, 34.3% of the 1957 model year from 1st August 1956, means 125 days later - which takes us to the first few days of December 1956 by my reckoning.

BUT - this is for a German-built export Beetle. For Australia our cars were built by CKD (completely knocked down) kits imported from Germany and assembled and finished in Melbourne (with increasing Australian parts as well like locally made tyres, batteries, glass, paint, upholstry, etc). These were always several months behind Germany, due to the time it took to ship the crates of parts out, rail them to Clayton and unpack/assemble/finish. Your car could therefore have been made any time up to around Easter 1957, or even later.

Check the wheel centres - under the hubcaps between the wheel bolts - for date stamps. Check all 5 wheels as they could easily have been swapped over the years. Check the back of the speedo for a date stamp too.