Posted on 10/07/2018 10:06:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
According to the seller, this Beetle was purchased new in Beaverton, Oregon, in 1964 as a backup for the owner's 1957 Beetle; the car cost $1757 when new. Apparently, he never needed it, as it was promptly put into storage and never licensed, insured, or driven, and was only moved once: after two years of keeping the Beetle in a friend's storage unit, the owner constructed his own building and moved it there, where it sat from 1966 to 2016. The 23rd mile on the odometer rolled over as the Beetle was pulled out of storage, and the original battery has never even been activated.
Finished in black with a red-and-white interior, the Beetle looks as if it has just rolled off the showroom floor. The window sticker is still attached, and the windshield wipers and hubcaps have never been fitted and are still in their boxes. Having always been stored inside under a sheet, it had until now never seen sunlight, according to the seller. The car is powered by a 40-hp 1.2-liter flat-four engine mated to a 4-speed manual transmission.
After the original owner died in 2014, his collection was passed on to his nephew, who is the person now selling the Beetle. He says the car was returned to running condition after coming out of storage without anything being done to affect its originality.
(Excerpt) Read more at caranddriver.com ...
I knew an old mechanic who said,
“Everyone should own a VW at least once in their lives.....but only once.”
Had a pretty nice ‘59 Beetle I bought in 1968 for $200 (iirc) when I was stationed in Germany, and I thought I paid too much! Drove that thing into the ground over the next couple of years. The ‘64 looked incredibly modern to me back in those days, lol. Good luck to them getting a million dollars for it, though.
I remember they were advertised for $1776 in the local TV guide for years.
I have a 2001 I’d take alot less for
As I remember, the US military would ship cars back to the States. I don’t know if they still do that.
My brother who was in the USAF in Germany shipped back a VW van ~ 1977. I don’t know if he paid for the shipment.
When we sold it my then 7 year old daughter sobbed as it was driven away——I didn’t———we bought a Mercury Cougar instead,1969,and I loved that car.
.
I’ve never owned a v-dub but I did learn to drive in a 1959 Karmann Ghia
The Germans took revenge on the world by blowing the oil cooler exhaust over the back number 3 cylinder.
I would buy one today if they still made them. I had 2 in the 70’s, also 2 Combi’s and a Carmen Ghia. The perfect cars for the age of commuting to work and city parking.
“What I remember about riding in Bugs is how frigging cold they were in the Winter.”
A relative was riding in one with a friend in the dead of winter and he asked if it would be warmer with the windows down.
They wouldn’t ship them free for us back in the late 60s. Would’ve cost us an arm and a leg. Thus I just handed my keys to a “friend” (he was supposed to send me $50, yeah right!) and walked away when it was time to go home.
......oh fer bucks sake. (clean ride)
The ole boys down at the coffee shop always said if you’d just buy a new car and cover it up and keep it in storage somewhere, it’d be worth a million dollars some day...
Ours had an auxiliary heater in it-—on the floor of the passenger side.
.
There’s nothing like German engineering, whether it’s cars or machinery or murdering six million people in cold blood.
Bingo.
They obviously don’t want to sell it.
My college bf had a shiny candy apple red one.
Try at least 12 million. Covers all the bases instead of a select group of victims.
I was in the USAF, in Japan, in 1987. DoD would have shipped my car back to the states, if I'd wanted them to. I was offered a Japanese 1971 Datsun 240Z with a racing cam for $500. That might have been worth shipping back.
Only things you have to do to get your car shipped (at least in 1987) is drain the motor oil and coolant, and bring the car to US specs. Usually means replacing the headlights and windshield, nothing else.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.