Got the Bug?

Volkswagen collectors search high and low for classic Beetles

In the summer of last year, Volkswagen Beetle No. 21,529,464 rolled off the assembly line in Puebla, Mexico. It was the last car in a storied automotive line that eclipsed even Ford's Model-T in popularity. Amazingly, it was largely the same "people's car" that had been commissioned by Adolf Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche more than 60 years earlier. It still had the same sturdy frame; the same air-cooled, four-cylinder engine; the same distinctive--if utilitar- ian--styling.

At least it looked that way to the layman.

But to Scott Faivre and his fellow Bug aficionados in the Las Vegas Volkswagen Club, the differences were as obvious and palpable as the differences between the original Wolfsburg logo and the Chevy bowtie. The fenders were square and boxy--not nearly as graceful as the body components on earlier Beetles. Ditto for the headlights, which lacked the gentle slope and refined posture of their predecessors. Similar problems plagued the bulky fenders, tacky taillights and plain rear deck lid, which was devoid of the stamped "W" that had decorated previous models. It was still a Bug, but it didn't have the style or character of its ancestors.

Volkswagen collecting is a unique variation on the often tedious and expensive hobby of car collecting. Most people think of collecting as gathering a variety of small objects--magnets, bottles, guns, etc.--into a larger group, but for many car collectors, the car itself is the collection. It represents years of rummaging through salvage yards, contacting parts wholesalers, frequenting estate sales, painting, tuning, repairing and rebuilding.

Yet Volkwagens defy even this logic. Because of their unprecedented production run, old Beetle bodies are still reasonably affordable, and new and used parts are routinely available for cars more than half a century old. Faivre's first Volkswagen was a 1974 Super Beetle that he bought in 1989, restored and sold 13 years later for four times the purchase price. Now he owns two Beetles--a 1964 convertible and a 1966 hardtop, which he recently picked up at a local auction for less than $1,000. These are "good years," he says, because the fenders and taillights weren't changed until 1967.

"In the hobby, there is a definite pre-'67 bias," says Faivre, an elementary schoolteacher by day. According to him, the older models are more desirable not only because of their classic style but because of lingering American hostility toward Germany after World War II. "Most Americans didn't want to have anything to do with German products after the war," he says. "It definitely took a little while to catch on."

Among the most collectible are the oval-window Beetles--or just "Ovals" to insiders. Produced between 1953 and 1957, oval-window Bugs can be distinguished by their small, round rear windows (as opposed to the larger, rectangular windows on later models). Still more rare are the 1948-1953 Hebmullers--of which only 100 are said to still exist. As Faivre says, "It's not uncommon to see a vintage Volkswagen from the mid- to late 1940s sell for $45,000-plus."

So what's a beginning collector to do?

"You can find stuff in the newspaper," Faivre says, but he admits that scavenging often produces the best results. "Some of these guys just drive around, hopping fences and looking in people's yards. I don't do that. I don't have time for that. But that's how you can really score stuff cheap. Like, if you can pick up a rusty old original Oval for $1,000, you stole it."--Newt Briggs