Between 1938-03, more than 21 million VW Type 1s (or Beetles) were built, making it one of the most commonly seen automobiles on the planet. These cars were literally everywhere in the 1960s and 1970s because they were so inexpensive to buy and drive. So these were hardly future collectibles back in those days, right? And yet this stunning 1965 edition of the “Bug” is a single-owner car with less than 2,000 original miles! It’s in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and offered by a dealer here on eBay. But it’s going to put a sizeable dent in the old budget at the classifieds price of $54,900. This unusual tip is brought to us by Bluetec320.
Changes to the “People’s Car” were usually few from year to year over 66 turns of the calendar. 1965 saw worldwide production exceed one million copies, with a lot of them coming to the U.S. Those kinds of numbers would eventually get the U.S. automakers into the subcompact car-building business. The little vehicles had an 1192-cc air-cooled 4-cylinder which produced 40 hp and sipped a marginal amount of gasoline. Perfect for the college student or someone else on a budget. Noticeable changes to the Beetle in ’65 was that the body stampings allowed for an increase in glass size – up by as much as 20% in some parts of the car.
One has to wonder how a 57-year-old auto is driven only 1,714 miles, but this one was. Considering it wears a Horseless Carriage plate out of Florida and is in Michigan now, we have to assume the car was obtained out of an estate. One where the original owner thought so highly of the Ruby Red Bug that it was only driven an average of 30 miles per year. It appears to look as close to brand-new as you could probably expect to find.
We’re told the VW comes with loads of documentation and has recently been serviced, due to extended periods of hibernation. None of these things should reduce its status as a “survivor” – new brakes, starter, fuel tank, tire, battery, and rebuild of the carburetor. The paint and interior are original and from the dozens of photos provided, look great other than some “slight patina” as the seller phrases it. It’s almost as though you popped open a crate and found a new car inside. Assuming everything is as we see, the only elephant in the room is probably its price. Is any VW Beetle worth nearly $55,000, even one as nice as this?
No.
This or a new Jetta. Achtung
$55K is high for this Beetle, regardless how many miles are on it. Nice car, but $20K overpriced. Maybe the dealer is hoping people will think they are getting a cheap 1965 Porsche 356. Nope, it is a Beetle. A nice one, but not a poor man’s Porsche.
Nice find Bluetec320!
Nice little bug but not worth anywhere the ask
I def agree! Even a Councours restoration wouldn’t get that kind of money.
At 54,900 it’s no longer the “peoples car” but I high priced classic. Cool and special and I love vintage VW but I would rather own the other Ferdinand Porsche car that is still air cooled but has a couple extra cylinders.
What can possibly be a reason somebody thinks this VW is worth that kind of money. Yeah ultra low mileage but these were not low number cars. They were everywhere and still no shortage if you really go looking for a bug.
The price of gas will re-ignite the popularity of these cars but be patient, they can be had for WAY LESS than $55,000.
Mind kind of Porsche. Keep them coming!
The best thing about being a hobbiest automotive collector/restorer across multiple foreign and domestic marques and not becoming exclusive to just one manufacturer, is that I’m not biased as to vehicle value.
Nor am I insulted by Russ’ insinuation that no Beetle is worth $55K despite keeping one in my collection, next to my pontiac, chevy, ford, mazda, bmw and honda. I get it, Russ and this site want clicks, comments and traffic. And, Russ’ question, however poorly worded, successfully generates traffic.
What surprises me is that BF is not concerned with offending potential VW advertisers, -and- that neither the commenters above or Russ are aware that many VW Beetles have already sold in excess of $55k and several into 6 figures.
So, to address Russ’ elephant, many Beetles are worth 55K. The 1965 example above is about 15% high for being merely 1 year too young. A Beetle’s value is an inverse to its window size. Factor in a rush out of inflated US dollars into tangible investments, the elephant in the room might sell for twice the ask.
Whatever.
Inflated US dollars? Didn’t that happen quite a while ago? People are just using that as an excuse to their wives to buy more toys.
The inflated US dollars keeps happening. Just on my way in to work today, gas price went up 35 cents a gallon since yesterday, and McDonald’s raised their prices another 10% this week.
Still, I agree, people are using it as an excuse to stick their money into toys!
Besides which, given the fact that the odometer is of ‘old school’
design with only five character spaces, how do we know that the advertised mileage isn’t 101715.0 instead of 01715.0 ??
WL Taylor,
I ran a restoration shop for years, and have done AACA 1st cars. I’m also a court recognized appraiser and I can tell the difference between a restored car and an original with ultra-low mileage. Even looking at photos I’m sure this is the real deal.
RacerX…Just like the Mopar’s Hemi, Pontiac GTO Judge, Chevy Corvette with 427, ithas to be a low build number or something special about it to bring that kind of price. Nothing special about a 65 VW!
Half the comments on BF are just b!tching about price. It gets kinda old after a while.
Right? I guess they are the type that would drive 30 minutes out of the way to save $5 on online shipping. I’m sure they spend money on things others would not.
Classic example of more money than brains!!!!!!!!
I’m thinking that the seller is counting on the new inflation to raise the price. You can buy a classic perfect show winner for half the price. Why would you want this?
Asking & getting are two different things –
DST,
You are so right. It’s easy to quickly come down in price, but difficult to negotiate a higher price!
$55K for a Type 2/Kombi, yes. For a Beetle, really? NO!
Awesome example. I would buy this if I had a car museum. A well-funded one.
$54,000 what kind of movie is this, i have never seen a vw even customized to the max go for more than $20,000 and it was a real beauty.its like a falcon never seen one over $1,500 this is a nightmare.
Not sure about this one, but some Beetles can actually go for big bucks these days.
Why would a 1700-mile car need new brakes and starter?
Sitting long enough, especially in a humid environment, can deteriorate brake shoe linings and the adhesive that binds them. Brake fluid is hygroscopic (absorbs water); it will eventually absorb enough water for the components it sits in to rust; also the seals in the master cylinder will deteriorate.
Starter’s a head-scratcher. Maybe it just died.
People buy what they like, and money may be no object. The recent Samba sale for $160K got everyone’s attention.
Six years ago I could have bought a beige 65 in this same condition for 5500.00. You might want to shop around. It is painted resale red though.
Out of 21,000,000, not many left due to no rust protection. Too bad they didn’t dip them in zinc chromate!
It would not surprise me if a wealthy collector snaps this up for the asking price. Look at what people are paying for VWs (and Honda CT 70s) on BaT.
You can ALWAYS go down, but never up in price.
Caviot Emptor.
I hope there are no Citroen CV2s or Yugos left with this low mileage.
Umm…nope, too much, even for this certifiable VW nut. Again, however, love and great maintenance, looking great.
Eh what the hell there are guys who buy their spouse/equivalents things like Isettas for this kind of money so why not? Just seeing this prompted some memories…thats for sure. Glad I didn’t need to spend 55g’s to remember ’em!
I’m surprised no one noticed that the DRIVER’S door ARMREST is missing!
I would insist on seeing it, making sure the shade of it matches the 1 on the passenger door.
Is it possible this car could have been built later on, say in the ’80s or ’90s, from a LEFTOVER body & accumulated factory parts(less the driver’s armrest)?
I would also have to see the steering wheel under that vinyl cover & the original tires(at least the bias ply spare!) – plenty of old low mileage cars still even wear original tires.
Why would the starter have to be replaced with such low miles?
I don’t know about ’60s VW fuel pumps, but those for ’60s GM cars are the 1st thing under the hood to discolor badly after less than a year up north in the USA if a car sits outside, even if used rarely & never DRIVEN in bad weather! I would look carefully at the fuel pump on this car – the 1st thing, if they traditionally discolor the same as GM pumps.
The Starter? Obviously this car has not been started too many times. After siting a few years, I bet the Bendix spring just hung up, or the starter itself. Any lube is very old. A few taps with a hammer might have fixed it.
The starter was likely replaced and not rebuilt/repaired for a few reasons.
First, the cost of a rebuilt VW starter from a local parts supplier is probably far cheaper than what it would cost for a local mechanic to rebuild.
And second, after sitting for so many years, the bare copper contacts on the armature’s commutator probably corroded to the point where the brushes were unable to make electrical contact. [Or were so corroded that the starter, while slowly turning over, was no longer able to turn fast enough to start the motor.]
Had this been in my shop, and depending on the owner’s decision on what $ amount to spend, we would have either rebuilt the starter and cleaned up the commutator copper surfaces, or changed the starter. If it was changed out, we would have also suggested the owner pay the additional return core charge and kept the original starter, as it was likely to retain markings indicating it was an original VW assembly line part. Future owners could then rebuild it if desired.