This Volkswagen Type 2 pickup has seen a lot of restoration work already, including a rebuilt engine, a new clutch, and a front disc brake conversion. Its sheet metal is said to be all original. It’s a handsome tribute to Competition Motors, the North Hollywood Porsche/VW dealer that famously prepped James Dean’s 550 Spyder just before he embarked on his last drive. Other than advertisements, vintage photos, and this tribute truck, nothing remains of the parking lot, dealership, and gas station complex where Dean roved before that fateful day. This VW pickup is located up the coast about five hours, in Pleasanton, California. As we’ll see, this well-conceived example of VW’s Type 2 is aggressively priced for its nostalgia factor.
The Type 2 refers to VW’s van/truck platform, as distinguished from the Type 1 – the Bug – and the Type 3 – the notchback/squareback compacts. Inspired by the Plattenwagen, which was cobbled together by VW to move parts inside its factory, Type 2s utilize a strengthened Type 1 pan and come in a wide variety of body styles. The van arrived first, in 1950. The tiny 1.1-liter, air-cooled, rear-mounted flat-four made about 30 hp; zero to sixty was a matter of “hurry up and wait”. Displacement gradually increased, as did output. By 1963, when this pickup was assembled, the engine had reached 1.5 liters and around 50 hp. The gearbox is a four-speed manual. Not quite revealed in this photo is the driver-side engine panel seal – which is missing.
Like the exterior, the cabin is spiffy, with nearly-new seat upholstery, a credible job of finishing the interior paint to a decent standard, bright gauges, and a restored steering wheel. Several undercarriage shots display at least some care lavished on this lesser-seen real estate. Still, the underside offers room for improvement if the new owner is ambitious. The bed is finished in off-white, complementing the logo and interior. The inside of the tailgate is battered – is it possible that the restorer didn’t bother to complete any bodywork on these panels?
Prices of early VWs have surged in recent years, in direct contrast to their performance statistics. At the top of the stack are multi-windowed vans, but Transporters (aka pickups) are also popular. Premium prices tend to accrue to double-cab versions, however – which are quite rare. This vehicle is listed here on eBay bid to $16,000 – but with a Buy-It-Now of $65,995. I’m not sure what informs that price. Early single-cabs can run into the mid-$20k area, but we’re looking at nearly three times that price here. What do you think it should take to find this Type 2 a new garage?
And it’s got the tax-evading Montana plates.That’s just
plain wrong – it should have CALIFONIA Black/Gold (or Gold/Black-
as everyone got the Black/Gold ones in 1963).
A dealer is selling it, they don’t transfer cars into their name. All they say it’s “a solid west coast vehicle”, not from which state it came from. The previous owner more than likely had it registered in Montana, it’s not up to them to register it in California while it’s on their lot, just process the paperwork so it gets registered in whatever state the next owner resides.
Steve R
Another case of a dealer being cheap, jumping-the-title, to avoid excise/sales tax, etc. Very cool none the less.
Sam, what you are suggestions only applies to private individuals that don’t put a car in their name before they sell it, not a licensed dealership, like the one that’s selling this car/truck. This dealer isn’t jumping the title to avoid paying taxes. Think if it like this, when a store buys product for resale from a warehouse or manufacturer, there is no sales tax anywhere along the line until it ends up in the consumers hands, that’s who pays the taxes. The dealer only pays the registration if it expires while on their lot.
Steve R
Steve- you are mostly correct. Thanks for straightening Sam out. I am a retired auto dealer and wrecking yard operator (dual licensed) from Washington State.
Dealers don’t register, or upgrade registrations, (or tabs) on vehicles. They are basically in limbo until purchased by a private party, who pays the freight for registration, plates, tabs, and sales tax. Hope that helps.
Bunky, thank you for the clarification. After posting I re-read it and would have worded my response differently. As for the registration, last September I bought a used car from a dealer, the registration expired while I was waiting for the money to be transferred into my bank, when I picked up the car they said registration was pain until September 2024. The amount of the contract didn’t change so I figured they covered it.
Steve R
Well,someone have had to register it in Montana,
& I’m betting that they didn’t live there.
I just really hate the dishonesty of people who
can well afford to do things legally do this.
It is cool, but at that price I’d go for a muscle car or something.
What can you say? Somebody’s gonna come along and pay that price, and go happily down the road. Count on it. Look at what VW lovers a paying for bugs and busses. Aside from the price, this thing is a sweetheart and a rare one at that. Betcha Mike Wolf would buy it, if he saw it.lol.
Ok, this really does need an LS for that money. Not totally kidding. As someone who has experienced white knuckle driving in a VW van (not because of the power or speed but because of cross winds), I feel qualified to say that these are unsafe at any speed. I am not sure why Ralph Nader didn’t write a book about these death traps that have no weight over the front end, or anything remotely resembling a crumple zone, even before that was a thing. I am not sure how much pot you have to smoke to remember these fondly.
Whenever I see the word tribute attached to a vehicle, I always replace it with counterfeit.
It’s crazy how the ex-hippies made enough money off of “the man” to be able to pay the outrageous prices these VW’s have been getting for the last decade and a half.
Nice, BUT for $65,000 I would buy a new or newer pickup in a heartbeat. These are fun, just not worth the 💰 for me.
I’m glad we have the thumbs up for comments. Generally if a comment has 0 or 1 thumbs up, it’s misinformation.
So, if someone leaves a comment like “I don’t like this” or “I love the color”, that gets no “thumbs”, that is somehow misinformation?
Those thumbs means nothing more than someone else likes the comment. If you believe that something is misinformation, open another tab and Google it, don’t rely on a random button push.
The days of buying any Type ll in this condition for $20,000 are long gone.
Here in Arizona tags/registration
are expensive, alot of folks have Montana plates on their motor homes.
But it’s still illegal & dishonest.
Okay, wow, I realize with such an opinionated group, we’re bound to go off on a bender, and not much said about the vehicle posted. What people do with registration is no concern of mine. I’m never going to buy this, and neither is anyone else here. It’s the vehicles and comments themselves is why I’m here.
The VW pickup,,,never saw’r one, seriously, it seemed Milwaukee had a call for the vans, as a novelty, but a pickup? Never. Fact is, on a trip when I was a kid, mid 60s, we landed in Zurich, and these were everywhere. My brother and I even joked, a VW pickup? And look, the sides seem to fold down for some reason. It was just so unusual to see. I read, VW Type 2 pickup was the workhorse of Europe for years, and they made over 155,000 of them. Not many came to the US, however, one site says over 74,000 were sold in the US. Another, more like 54,000, so records are iffy. We never saw one. It’s still a novelty, does few things well, and if that’s worth, what now?,,,SEVENTY GRAND,,,man, even the biggest burnout in history never thought their rattle can VW would be worth that. The real drug here is money and greed.
This is a $40-$45k vehicle all day long. Adding text to make it a ‘tribute’ ain’t enough to get out from underwater, which is where this restoration probably resides. Price em out on thesamba.