This is a news item from the Sydney Sun-Herald newspaper from 30 August 1964. It reports on the 1965 changes for the European Beetle.

As it turned out, no the Australian 1965 did NOT get the Euro model's bigger windows. The costs of changing all the Melbourne factory's press tooling made it impossible. But the Aussie '65 did get a flat folding rear seat!

Interesting also that they compare the Aussie standard with the German standard Beetle. Ours indeed did have the Deluxe's all-synchro gearbox.

We didn't get the bigger window body shell until Australian manufacturing ended in 1968 and we got the German 1968 model (later CKD-assembled here).

NOPE we had to wait till 68

i was lucky to source one of these a couple of years back , was imported - Canberra car - solid - will be a full resto , bahama blue , 1200cc ........ , last weekend hit the rear panels with some L519 bahama blue - just too see...

looks like great project

Bahama Blue is my favourite colour My Spliity is painted that colour

Nice German Beetle! Ex-UK? No extra holes in the guards for the deluxe towel-rail bumpers. 99% of people would never pick it from an Aussie one (or even know there were Aussie ones) but of course we should.

Note the horn bar - US/Euro Beetles in '64-'65 lost the usual chrome half-ring and just went with the cross bar. Then they went back to a half ring. Aussie Beetles had the half-ring all the way through.

Also the wiper switch - see the push-button in the switch for the washers. Our Beetles didn't have that, it was the same solid switch until '68 and the washers were operated by pulling on the switch.

The US/Euro fuel gauge is not electric like ours were, but rather just a float and cable. The gauge reads the level at all times, not just when the ignition is on.

At least resto parts for Euro/US Beetles are easy to get!

Its like the 67 one year only model that we never got!

It's only similar to the 67 beetles from Europe & the US with its window size. Other than that and a few minor changes like the 65 steering wheel horn ring & 65-66 push button rear decklid, the 65 imported is pretty much the same. 66 imported has a lot more differences, and a 67 has an absolute shitload.... hundreds of one year only parts.

The reason most of them are from Canberra, is because the embassies had their own cars brought over from their respective countries, and a lot of them chose VWs. I've owned 3 ex embassy Beetles & knew the whereabouts of many others, as I grew up there. Most have disappeared now though.

Here's a slightly later news report from the Sydney Sun-Herald, 1 August 1965. The German Beetle had just been upped to 1300cc, while the Type 3 1600TL Fastback had just been released there. It was thought that both models would soon debut in Australia.

The Australian Deluxe Beetle did indeed go up to 1300 six months later, in early 1966, but was still the 1958-64 small window body shell. As the article said, VW Australasia had invested too much money in local tooling to change to the new Euro body shell, and it was never stamped here at all.

The 1600TL also debuted in Australia in 1966, but was sold here with a slight name change as the 1600TS. It was fully imported, unlike the 1500 sedan, station wagon and panel van that were Aussie-built.

1964-65 marked the period where VW's Australian sales began to slide, and the company lost considerable market share to the Mini, Valiant and the many new Japanese models. Local VW manufacture eventually had to cease in 1968 due to dropping sales and crippling losses.

This was how things panned out for VW in Australia in 1964-65, when they could not afford to update to all the Euro '65 improvements.

Look at the left graph of vehicle sales. From the start of 1964, the VW 1200 was the third-best selling car in Australia after the EH Holden and Morris Mini, and well ahead of the Falcon and Valiant. But VW sales dropped steadily until September, when the Falcon and Valiant caught up. A sudden surge to the end of 1964 saw the VW still in 3rd place - just.

But in 1965 it was all downhill. The VW was quickly passed by the Vailiant, and then the Falcon, and by March 1965 the VW was 5th where it stayed the rest of the year. In fact, the text says the VW was also passed by the Ford Cortina in November 1965.

Note - see how unpopular the HD Holden was compared with the earlier EH.

Market share (right graph) tells a similar story. VW was third throughout 1964, but dropped to 5th in 1965.

And no, there would no improvement in the years following, as VW was later passed by Toyota, then Datsun, Mazda and Hillman by 1970. And by many more by 1980.