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posted on February 26th, 2014 at 07:01 AM
Happy 40th anniversary Passat!
For several years VW sales in Australia had been stagnant. 1971 - 19,138. 1972 - 14,909. 1973 - 15,966.
In 1973 Volkswagen Australia sold 924 VW Beetle 1300s and 6,627 VW 1600s (this includes the Superbug and the Type 3 range) plus 8,415 Transporters,
the biggest selling model in the VW range at that time. All were locally assembled in Melbourne, by Motor Producers Ltd at Clayton.
For 1974 the Type 3 range was discontinued, replaced by the revolutionary new Passat range. This new VW was front-engined, front-wheel drive with
water-cooled, in-line over-head cam engines. The 1300cc two-door produced 69-bhp, while the four-door 1500 produced 86-bhp.
The Passat was also locally assembled at Clayton; Australia was the first country outside Germany to make the Passat. It was first shown to the press
in January 1974 and released for sale in February 1974, although cars didn't start reaching dealers until March 1974. In June 1974 the range was
expanded with a station wagon, plus the sporty TS - its 1500 engine was tuned to produce 98-bhp. It was the fastest VW ever sold here and retained
that record until the arrival of the Golf 2 GTI in 1990.
So in February 1974 you could have bought a basic 1300 Beetle for $2,569; or a 1600 Superbug L for $2,798. Or the new Passat range - the 1300 two-door
was $3,348, and the 1500 four-door was $3,698 (manual) or $3,998 (auto).
Which one of these would YOU have bought? Which ones do you think Australians did, in fact, buy?
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posted on February 26th, 2014 at 07:47 PM
My dad bought his first new car in 1976 and it happened to be a flipper blue 1.6 auto passat wagon. The passat was an awesome car that was ahead of
its time and it started my VW journey. My pride and joy when I was 19 was a 75' TS 2 door with a heavily worked 1.5 featuring ported head stainless
oversized valves and twin side draft dellortos .
It could keep a 253 kingswood or 186 torana honest (it was the 80s afterall ) and I replaced the VW badge with a wolfsburg crest and it kept people guessing.
Great cars.
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posted on February 26th, 2014 at 08:05 PM
photos of old photos
If only there were digital cameras back then........
My ts engine bay and when I raced at oran park as part of a vw show.
Also 1 shot of dads LS auto wagon at some show in melbourne during the 80s
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posted on February 27th, 2014 at 06:54 AM
Since collecting my B1 wagon from Wayne Penrose's workshop, the odd little variant has grown on me. Even the peculiar position of the radiator gives
the car character. I guess because its different that I like driving it (pity it wasn't easier to lower with the unique front strut setup)...
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Phil74Camper
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posted on February 28th, 2014 at 06:45 AM
Nice stories there guys.
So given that in 1974 you had the choice of : 1300 Beetle ($2,569); 1600 Superbug L ($2,798); Passat 1300 two-door ($3,348) or Passat 1500 four-door
($3,698 (manual), $3,998 (auto)) - which ones did Australians actually buy?
The sales figures tell the tale:
1974 - 957 VW 1300s, 2,025 VW 1600s, 3,411 Passats. Already, in its first year, the Passat outsold the 1300 Beetle and 1600 Superbug COMBINED.
Australians embraced the new generation, and it was the beginning of the end for the ancient air-coolers. Engineering-wise, in terms of power and
efficiency, performance, economy, braking and handling, space and design, the Passat was so much better than the Beetle it was just no contest. Even
the Beetle's much lower purchase price didn't help, as the sales figures showed. The only things that dragged the Passat down, in Australia, was its
local assembly - quality was not as good as it should have been, and there were numerous delays in getting the finished cars to dealers. There were
numerous changes to the car on the Melbourne assembly line to try to rectify initial problems, with changes to the foot pedal layout, engine
mountings, braking system and gear shift linkage. Nonetheless, WHEELS magazine awarded the Passat its Car of the Year award for 1974, the first ever
such award for Volkswagen.
1975 - 462 VW 1300s, 1,930 VW 1600s, 4,113 Passats. The next year showed the Passat was not just a novelty; sales increased further while both Beetle
models continued their terminal decline. 1975 Passats were better built than the 1974 models as the Melbourne factory adjusted to the new model, and
VW dealers around the country were becoming more familiar with them after 20 years of working on air-cooled cars. This Passat sales figure of 4,113
for 1975 would remain an Australian record for another 36 years - and would not be beaten until 2012!
1976 - 1,159 VW 1600s, 4,429 Golfs, 3,945 Passats. The change to the modern generation of VW was almost complete. The Superbug and 1300 Beetle were
both dead, replaced by one last 'bitza' leftover model called the 1600 Beetle. It sold just half of the combined 1300-1600 Beetle from the year
before. The Passat held steady, but of course the big news for 1976 was the Australian introduction of the Golf. The bad news was that Nissan had
bought the former VW factory, and this would be the last year for Australian-made VWs. In 1977, with the fully imported Passat and Golf range, prices
climbed by 20% and sales dropped by more than half. They would go on dropping, even after the Passat (and Golf) diesels appeared in 1978, due to
unrealistic pricing thanks to the huge import tariffs on imported cars in those days. All VW imports ended in 1981, and we wouldn't see new VW cars
in Australia again until 1990!
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posted on February 28th, 2014 at 07:49 AM
Thanks for the info Phil - I didn't realise their popularity. Along with the Mk1 Golf, VW really did push the frontier with production front wheel
drive cars. Sadly, not many B1s exist these days, but there are a few in Australia keeping the flag waving. I came across a TS project recently -
mmmm….
Phil74Camper
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posted on February 28th, 2014 at 12:30 PM
Yes Craig, it would be very cool to feature an original, unmolested 1500 TS Passat in VWMA. They were way above the standard of the Torana, Cortina,
Centura, Corona, 200B etc of the time. But all the ones I've seen in recent years have all been blinged - non-standard paint and interior, fullysik
wheels and tyres etc etc.
The 1500 two-door TS appeared here in mid-'74 along with the wagon, a few months after the 1300 coupe and 1500 four-door sedan. It was $200 more than
the 1500 sedan, but had lots of goodies apart from the hot 98-bhp engine - four round headlamps, sporty steering wheel and extra gauges in the centre
console. Sadly the TS (and the low-selling 1300 coupe) were discontinued in 1976 when the Golf appeared. The remaining Passat 1500 sedan and wagon
were then upgraded to the same 1600cc engine as the Golf.
So rare as the 'B1' Passat is today, some of the individual models (such as the TS and 1300) are even rarer, as they were low-selling at the time.
Rarer still was the model that replaced the TS, the 1500 hatchback. This was a three-door body like the 1300/TS but with the sedan's 1500, and a new
'hatchback' rear. Rather than fixed rear window and small bootlid like the sedan, the whole of the hatch's rear lifted up.
Rarest of all are the fully imported facelifted 'B1.5' models that appeared in 1979. These used the same body shell but with a new nose that used
four rounded headlamps and a chamfered front bonnet. The rear taillights were now lozenge-shaped, not rectangular, and the hatchback replaced the old
fixed window and boot on all models except for the wagon. These Passats were VERY expensive, $9,900 for the sedan and $12,000 for the top diesel wagon
in 1979 - more than the mid-range six-cylinder Fords and Holdens. Not surprisingly, sales dried to a mere trickle - 356 Passats in 1978, 90 in 1979,
271 in 1980 and 287 in 1981.
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posted on February 28th, 2014 at 04:23 PM
Hi
I had a TS Passat for a while, I loved it. They had almost Recaro like seats in them. Zoran a club member had a Wattle one with a steel sunroof, not
sure if he still has it.
I love the colour of your wagon Craig, they also have a very useful cargo area as well.
My parents were all set to buy a wagon but supply dried up for a while so they bought a 180B instead.
) and I replaced the VW badge with a wolfsburg crest and it kept people guessing.
