Beetles are fun and immensely popular cars which never seem to go out of style. This 1971 model is claimed to have covered only 15,700 miles. While the car is in fair original condition, I am not so sure that I buy the proposed mileage. The best news about this beetle is that it is a very solid car with only minimal rust concerns. With a little fine tuning and cleaning you would soon be cruising in this fun little machine. With 2 days remaining, bidding has risen to $4,050. Check out this Beetle here on eBay out of Gaithersburg, Maryland.
While it certainly seems feasible that this Beetle spent some time parked, I don’t believe that the car has 15,700 miles. The engine is a bit too grimy for a car of that mileage. Also the front beam seems to have a lot of old grimy grease that has wept out over time. The engine has been given a tune up, and a fresh carburetor. Although I think it is odd that the seller left this information out of the auction. You will likely need to invest some time in adjusting the carb as the seller reports that you have to give it gas to keep the car running. Despite the minor running issues, it appears that the car is a driver.
Like any Beetle, the simplistic interior is relatively clean with some minor concerns. You will find that the dash pad is split in several places which is quite a common issue with these cars. Also the tan vinyl is prone to fading, which is evident with this car. The seller has expressed that the carpet and filler panels may need some attention.
While it seems quite possible that this is a survivor, the off color deck lid makes me a bit curious. The body is quite straight minus a nasty dent in the driver rear fender, and a minor dent in the passenger front fender. Miraculously the body appears to be rust free, even below the rear air vents. The rubber seals are dry rotted, and the side reflectors are missing off of the taillight housings. Most of the roof and the rear driver side fender are oxidized looking to have been exposed to sunlight for an extended amount of time. Both sides of the car are still glossy, showing this Beetle would polish up nicely. The floor pans are awesome with only a small area of rust that looks to be near the jack up point and battery area. Otherwise this is quite a rock solid beetle. After a tune and a little polishing this Beetle will be a sharp looking driver that is ready to enjoy. What do you think this rock solid Beetle will sell for?
This seems to be what nice running Bugs go for here in Colorado. Again, same old thing, the zoom feature kills their low mileage claim everytime. It could have 115K, many people put a lot of miles on these. Looks like a lot of tinkering for the new owner, but a nice old Bug.
There is a certain satisfaction in smelling antifreeze at a red light and knowing that it’s not yours. G-burg is close to DC and Mary Land puts sand on the roads. Buy it, clean it up, install stainless steel heater boxes and a JC Whitney fan kit and you’ve got the ultimate urban assault vehicle.
Not the original seat covers.
It looks like the stock Leatherette seat covers to me. I have owned many Bugs.Why does it have a ’72 or later deck lid?
Those seat covers are old aftermarket replacements.
They don’t fit correctly either.
Seat covers don’t fit properly.
They are not original.
Door panels are off white and seat covers would match, those seat covers are tan not off white and the color does not change that drastically.
Maybe the original was hit and the owner bolted on something that was “close enough.”
There are different definitions of the term “survivor” when applied to automobiles. One could say that my own motley collection of older vehicles are Northeast survivors in the sense that they have been saved from the crusher, looking ratty but still on the road instead of going into Chinese-made appliances.
It’s right around the corner from me; I messaged the seller to see when I can check it out! This car looks as to be a great car for a beginner trying to get into restoration!
The steering wheel looks like it is out of a VW bus. Every beetle I have ever owned had a horn ring with the crest on it,
I believe my ’71 standard Beetle had that wheel, though I couldn’t swear to it. The Belle was decontented a bit when they brought out the Super Beetle in ’71.
The seat covers say J.C. Whitney to me. My ’74 already had aftermarket covers in ’87. The steering wheel doesn’t look right, paint mismatch in the deck and overall wear & tear don’t point to any 5 digit mileage. I’ll be surprised if the engine number matches. That being said, the price isn’t ridiculous. My mom and I each had ’74s this color and I still have a soft spot for mine, which means I have to overlook a few bad memories…
Might be worth it if you could grab it under 5 grand. I would need a lot more information first.
Sorry, this car has over 100,000 on it. Maybe over 200,000, but there is no way it has 15K. The steering wheel is wrong, the upholstery is wrong, the trunk lid is wrong. The dash would have been the same color as the body. I am old enough to have known these well when I was in High School. Wonder why people think that nobody will notice that their story is not exactly true. OK…I will keep my political opinions to myself.
Unless its pre 67 im out!
The 67 and later arent nearly as nice
Gotta have the porsche style headlights
If its not pre 67 im not interested
Love beetles but they gotta have the porsche style fenders.
When I was in college in the Chicago area, I would ride share with other students to get back to the east coast (NY) on holidays. One of the ride shares was with an older student who had a Bug (64-66, not sure which year). Going across the flats of Indiana and Ohio it would do 72mph floored. When we got to PA and its mountains, it would settle back to 54 or 55mph uphill. Trucks were passing us. Then of course there’s the famous bug shudder when passed or passing a semi. The air off the tractor could move you a half a lane if you weren’t careful. When I worked as a wrench in garages and shadetree, I saw a lot of these. I would always warn the owners that they only had 3 quarts of oil in an air-cooled engine, and they needed to change it every 2000 miles to be safe. I’ve known them to go well over 100K with good maintenance, and to need an engine after 35K with poor maintenance. Doing a brake job on a poorly maintained one was a real pain, but you could drop the engine in less than 45 minutes (there were some who claimed they could do it in about 20, but I needed a good 60 to be careful).