Hi
I have never owned a classic VW, but for some reason have a desire to. I have spent a lot of time mooching about relevant internet sites, and I am finding it difficult to make up my mind about how to tackle this. I favour a restoration from scratch (not done by me, I hasten to add) but I guess there's something to be said for purchasing an already well-restored example. There has to be some purpose to this as well. I would want a car that I would not be afraid to take out in the rain, and that might provide me with a bit of a "grin factor" (not necessarily a 12 sec standing quarter!!). I was born in 1954 - what are Beetles born in that year like, and do you think I would enjoy owning one? I have also been told that 1967 (single model year?) Beetles are nice to own.
Some comments from more experienced VW'ers would be welcome. Thanks for reading this. Steve

If you want a 1967, look for a 12V 1500CC sunroof!
Very rare but nice to drive.
A 1200 and 1300 is also OK! :d
On the other hand, I love to drive a 1954 beetle too.
It's diffrent to drive with becouse it has semaphores to turn left or right and people don't know this anymore and so you have to wach very often in your riervieuwmirror if you want to stop.
I've added an extra stoplight becouse the stops are invisible.
Black one is 1955 (same as 1954)
The red one is a 1967.  Afbeelding 103.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.  Afbeelding 092.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.

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The '67 would be easier to live with but as you've never owned a Vintage VW before a '67 or a '54 is going to come as a bit of a shock. It's like driving nothing you've driven before but they're a whole heap of fun.

Restoring a car yourself is like dropping money into a dark hole, not knowing how deep it is. Save you energies for a search for the right, completely restored car. In a recession you have a good chance of picking up a bargain.

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Thanks for your responses so far. Very nice vintagevw! Thanks also for your observations John - good point about the money-pit angle.
I can at this point confess to being a former 1974 MGB Roadster owner, which was restored from a bare shell in 1999 (again, not by me!). Not at all the same as a Beetle I know, but it means I'm not totally unfamiliar with owning an older vehicle. The MG was great, but I never enjoyed driving it as an "all weather" vehicle, and I hope that I will be more likely to actually USE a properly restored Beetle - which is the object of the exercise, for me at least. Keep those ideas coming, and thanks for your help. Steve

In my opinion you cant beat an early 50s bug! They are however less nice to drive and, if stock a lot less powerful when compared with ones dating from the 60s!

Oval window beetles (53-57) are, in my opinion the best looking beetles by far and although they are not as good to drive, im sure you wont notice this particularly on short journeys but im sure you would begin to with longer or daily journeys. 60s beetles have many "improvements" like steering dampers and larger windows for better visibility. I say improvements like that becasue it is debatable who you speak to if they were improvements or over complicating the car :wink:!

I can see exactly what John means by trying to get hold of a ready restored car but I would try to find out if the person who did the work was reputable and what was done, shiny paint has been known to hide mountains of filler and newspaper, unbeknown to the owner and if it has had a lot of work (like new chassis or major reconstructive surgery after an accident i would be weary!

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Yes that's absolutely right. I should qualify what I'd written...you really have to do your homework on any given model and by far the best move is to take along someone who knows exactly what they are looking for and at.

I bought my Ghia from California but I had an experienced Ghia friend crawl over it before I bought.

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Take someone with you when you are planning to buy one who haves knowledge about it.
I prefer a 1955 beetle to drive with, there is no luxuary on a fifties, neather on a sixties....
But for a daily driver is a sixties beetle safer.

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Thanks again - all good advice. I will keep looking. By the way, what about this or this?!! 

The 1972 might look good but its far from 'stock' and extremely expensive. To my mind not really a 'classic beetle.
The 1958, on the other hand, is a superb car and is well known on the classic VW circuit, although it hasn't been seen out and about now for several years. It's won many awards and featured in several magazine articles and books. As far as I can remember it had a comprehensive restoration in the 1990's. Its been for sale now for a long time, so probably over priced in the present economic climate. Having said that, its well worth viewing and its not too far from you as its in Leeds.

I knew I had a copy of a magazine in which the 1958 was featured and now I've managed to find it. If you can get hold of a copy of VolksWorld magazine, April 1999, then you'll be able to read the full story of GCM 764. The restoration had just been completed when the feature was published.
Cheers.

Depends what you want from a car. Does driving fun only come when you drive fast, or just the grin factor that comes with driving something totally antique, even if its slow? I´m sure that both of the above are excellent cars, but its certainly chalk and cheese to compare the two.

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BTW The 72 was restored/built to its current spec by Paul Jackson-Turner someone very well known for his attention to detail. If it was worked on by Paul it will always command top dollar.

...but of course as JD has said they're entirely different beasts. The added bonus if you did buy the '58 however, is that you'd still be welcome in this forum.:wink:

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:shock: Neither!

Both are far too restored for me, try to find a car that has never been off its pan and reduced to nuts and bolts if possible.

For 6-10k you should be able to find a FANTASTIC, pre67 car. I love Paul and his restos are as good as it gets, same for One on One, but I have never seen any other 67- car make over 10K ( excluding kabs obviously) so you would be buying at the very top end of market value.
No of course you could probably not restore these 2 cars again for the same cash, but you dont need to! because when you are looking in the -£10k budget band you simply dont need to buy a fully restored car, because unlike 99% of beetle buyers, you can afford to find the absolute best original car!

There are still a few fantastic unrestored uk rhd cars out there, every year a couple surface, and If you dont mind lhd, you will still be able to find an original paint 67(yes sunroof would be better) or a nice original clean un-messed with oval with less than 100k miles (or same very original cars with just a repaint) for 10k.

You are best to look at ALL beetle years, but only for genuine as rustfree as possible low mileage cars. UNLESS a restored car REALLY turns your head as you have pointed out from the above. But I doubt either of those cars above will ever appreciate and be worth a penny more than they are advertised for today. With a low mile car, the sky is the limit. And NO it is not ONLY about investment (before Malcolm tells me off again 😳 :d ) its simply about not buying a sinker.
Very cool idea to match your birth date, but you might buy the wrong car, just to get a 54, as they dont come up that often to give you a good choice.

UK (non vw) Classic car dealers usually have a ridiculously over-inflated price view of beetles based on their lack of knowledge of whats original.

I think by the spring you will find a stunning car in the uk from a private seller, but if you dont find one, I would go shopping at BBT with my 10k, I love some of the cars he has for sale :

https://www.bbt4vw.com/Car%20sales/Autoverkoop/kever/kever.php 

Good examples of the type cars you will be able to find for well under 10K that have caught my eye and I would buy if I were you :

58 

There was a 61 sold last year with under 30k miles, or a lovely '71 just like RoRoVW's (under 30k miles) would be a shrewd buy.

Good ovals get a bit harder to find.

I am loving this at the moment (I will get bashed for mentioning another 1303 here! :lol: )

1303 kab on ebay 4.5k miles! 

what can I say, I am partial to fat chicks sorry :lol:

BUT, If you only want a shiny fully restored visually spotless looking and/or modified beetle, then ignore all of my own opinion above and I wish you good luck as there are a lot more fully restored cars available but 90% are not good! :beer:

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If you decide that you want a car that drives like an oval (early to mid 50s, black car) and has the looks of the early 60s cars then you may consider a 58-59 beetle like the one you have seen in the classifieds on here!

These are, mechanically, essentially ovals but the have larger windows for visibility (Improvement?) and there dashes are different (not a patch on the lovely oval one but it has a larger glovebox!)

I personally love the look of the late 50s cars, especially if you get a ragtop! I agree with mrsherbie that you should try to avoid 100% restored beetles (no character) and if they have had the shell separated from the chassis some cars can start to creak and not drive as nicely! I would however not immediately disregard a car that has had this done but I would have a good long test drive!

For your money (and a lot of hunting) you could probably get a car in similar condition to Peter Harveys UK 58!




Sorry for using a picture of your car Peter but I cant help it if I love it!

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The colours in that photo are wonderful!! :d

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I was impressed that they got the colour to look so right, it must be a hard colour to capture with a camera!

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I have been offered two absolutely MINT condition RHD British cars within the last few weeks. One is a Java Green '66 with 16,000 miles on the clock from new. It is literally in showroom condition and hasn't had as much as a paint touch-up in its 42 years. The second is a beautiful, unrestored '59 that had a repaint back in 1995. Other than that, it's 100% original (including the tyres!!). Again, a British car with 60,000 miles on the clock from new.

They're out there, you just need to keep looking!

PS: I found a one owner (from 1947-July 2008!!!) Beetle in the UK. Will be going to view it next week :):):)

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