CC is a funny place. All this time, all this wealth of knowledge, all this energy and those litres of Internet ink spent on this website to discuss the VW Beetle, yet it seems that no proper long-form post has been written about the late-model “Super Beetle” Cabriolet. It’s a significant milestone in the Beetle story, as it was the very last Type 1 variant made in Germany, and the last to be sold officially by VW in several countries. So here we go for the open-air bug’s grand finale!
The Beetle famously outlasted all forecasts and was built for decades all over the world, ending up in Mexico in 2003 with an unequalled tally of over 21.5 million units made. This includes a small fraction of drop-tops, the most common by far being the official Karmann-built four-seaters: VW sold 331,847 Type 1 Cabriolets, of which over 160,000 were of the later 1302/1303 (a.k.a Super Beetle, for North American readers) variety, a few of which evidently made their way to Japan in period blood-orange garb.
The Type 1 saloon was sold in most Western European countries until MY 1978 and left the North American range in 1977, but the Cabrio kept the flame alive for a couple of extra years in those markets, because even back then, the bug was impossible to exterminate from the collective consciousness. Apparently, Karmann had planned to quit making the Beetle drop-top by the summer of 1979, but word had spread that the Cabriolet’s time was up and there was a mighty rush of last-minute orders, pushing production by a few days into January 1980.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Brazilian or Mexican Beetle saloons could be obtained in certain European markets – and I know for a fact that some were exported to Japan as well. The complete history of the Beetle’s presence on the Japanese market is still kind of murky to me, but some aspects are becoming clearer the longer I live here.
One aspect is the peculiar nature of European cars in Japanese-spec, especially those from the ‘70s and ’80s. This VW Cabriolet was most probably sold here new because it features a tell-tale mix of Euro- and US-spec, plus some local peculiarities: the Euro bumpers combined with the US-spec single-exhaust (i.e. catalytic converter) engine would be odd anywhere but here.
As far as purely Japanese oddities are concerned, these turn signal repeaters are present on all of the Mexican Beetles I see here. I initially thought all 1302/1303 Cabriolets were made with the fender-mounted items that most late Beetles have, but a bit of web image sleuthing proved me wrong. Some do and some don’t – and it seems the Cabriolets bound for Japan had their turn signals in the bumper, coupled with these repeaters.
Looks pretty good, really. The late-model fender turn signals are a bit too clunky. I find these clean fenders a lot more attractive. On the other hand, it makes the Super Beetle “fat nose” look even more conspicuous…
If this is the very same 1.6 litre flat-4 as the one they put in US-bound Super Beetles, that would make this a 48hp machine. By 1978, that was pretty pathetic given the displacement, truth be told. But the Beetle gets a break, because it’s not and never was about performance.
It was always about the delights of open-air motoring. Since the very start, back in the KdF-Wagen days, the range was planned to include a fully-fledged convertible, alongside the Standard Limousine and the deluxe sunroof version. All three were famously present at the Wolfsburg factory foundation stone-laying ceremony in 1938, where the range was unveiled, but only the standard saloon production was initiated by 1939. According to some sources though, around a dozen KdFs identical to the one pictured above were made by the coachbuilder Autenrieth circa 1938-40, but events quickly made this version (and most of the Beetle’s non-military applications) rather moot.
After the war, VW rose from the ashes and became one of the unlikeliest lead characters in the German economic miracle. It was soon time for the Cabriolet to be enthroned at the apex of the range. The Karmann four-seater was pretty much a re-hash of the pre-war prototypes and became the Type 1 Cabriolet per se starting in 1949 (1951 shown above). Other coachbuilders also practiced their art on the Beetle – Beutler, Drews, Hebmüller and many more – in the late ‘40s and ‘50s, but Karmann was the outfit that took it to the industrial level the model deserved.
Sure, the convertible top was ludicrously massive when folded down. That was the usual way for German cars in the ‘40s and it remained that way will the end (1977 factory photo above), but it fit the car’s antiquated looks pretty well. The rest of the Beetle seems to have changed a lot more over the years than the convertible top…
The vivid colours they used on Super Beetles were really something else. It’s funny how a very early Beetle looks perfect in black or any dark colour, but would seem wrong in white, yellow or pea green. But the ‘70s Beetles took to those colours pretty well. The exact hue this Cabrio is sporting is, as far as I can tell, “Mars red” – literally out of this world.
The navy blue wheels are a puzzling choice, but it kind of works. And everything is so pristine that one cannot help but stand there and admire.
Not crazy about the aftermarket wheel, but those seat covers are sheer perfection! The fact that this is a left-hand drive car doesn’t mean it wasn’t sold here as new: blue-collar conveyances such as Transporters were usually sold with RHD, but this is actually a prestige vehicle – which makes the snob-appeal of the LHD almost irresistible for the local clientele.
The back seat of a VW Beetle is never a fun place to be, but I suppose if the roof come down, that might improve the situation pretty significantly.
Whoever owns this car has a thing for cool stickers and plaques – and not the usual “JAF” or “Tokyo Dinseyland.” The period-perfect stickers inside the car are great, but there are some serious enameled collector’s items on display on the engine cover.
The amount of effort VW spent on transforming the Beetle into the Super Beetle is, retrospectively, a bit of a waste, surely. I’m not counting the EFI and catalytic converter – those were mandated by certain markets, so they were the price of doing business in the ‘70s. But the rest of the changes, gradual though they were, were extensive: new nose, new front suspension, bigger front trunk, big curved windscreen, chunky “elephant foot” taillights, the completely (and most unfortunately) revamped dash… All that and the car barely made it to the end of the decade.
Volkswagen were wise to keep the Cabriolet on the job for a few extra innings. They and Karmann rode that fuel-injected flat-4 all the way to the bank, and rightly so. Maybe they put this particular car in the vault while they were at it and it only recently made it outdoors again, where a Cabriolet clearly belongs.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1977 VW Beetle – The Fuel Injected End Of The Road For The Beetle, by PN
CC Outtake: 1971 VW Cabriolet – Can I Take It Hiking?, by PN
Curbside Classic: 1956 Rometsch Beeskow – Coach-Built VW, by PN
Cohort Classic: VW Hebmüller Cabriolet – A Genuine Heb Or A Fake?, by PN
QOTD – Tell Me About This 1963 VW 1200 (Beetle) Cabriolet, by Roger Carr
A Beetle vert is always fun.
I worked with a lawyer who was about 20 years older than I am. He had loved a 63 Beetle and a 71 Karmann Ghia convertible, both bought new. He bought one of the last of these Beetle Cabriolets, one that he recalled as a 1980 model. It was triple white, and he kind of realized after the fact that he had bought the ultimate chick car. He said he couldn’t go anywhere in it without middle aged ladies ooohing and aaahing over it. The problem was that it never wanted to start in wet weather. He sold it after about a year – to a wealthy lady who wanted it for a fair weather toy. It was the only VW he did not recall fondly.
Nearly identical to the our 1976 beetle! This photo of my dad was published in about 1979 in my hometown newspaper, The Goshen News, in the small Indiana town in which I grew up. The same car sits in my garage as a write this!
That’s a great picture and caption! I miss the days when random pictures like this would appear in local newspapers.
A more recent pic, taken along the Mississippi River near Moline, IL!
…it would help if I attached the photo
If the photo’s not loading, it may be too large. Try reducing the file size – if it’s no more than 1,200 pixels in the bigger dimension, then it’ll post on here.
Oddly, I don’t recall any big hullabaloo being made about either the last Beetle sedans or last Beetle convertibles being sold in the US. Quite unlike the last American-built convertible (1976 Cadillac Eldorado) which was massively overhyped – especially since American convertibles returned to the market by the early ’80s, including the Eldorado.
My grandmother never learned to drive – never had to, living in Chicago. But her good friend Laura did drive and her car was a navy 1959 Beetle convertible. When my dad needed a dependable ride, she sold it to him for $200. It looked like new. I was small enough to sit – with my sister – behind the back seat. We loved that car. It was my father’s first Beetle and it was the best one he had. When we grew out of that car – he sold it. He regretted doing that, and that was the reason he spent the next few decades buying other Beetles – however, none of them were convertibles.
Our neighbor across the street had a bright red version of our navy convertible. They were German and had that car, a 1966 911, and a Westphalian. Our neighbor next door for over 40 years was Norwegian, and also had Beetles and other VWs – and Ramblers. Our blue-collar neighborhood was filled with imported cars from many countries, as many of our neighbors were first generation post WWII immigrants.
So I grew up in Beetles. They are dependable, and shockingly primitive. Their safety is iffy. Side-impact protection in a VW convertible is zero. That door seals perfectly, but it is not a place to be in any side collision over 15 miles per hour. Beetles are slow. We loved them in Chicago for their winter footing, but not for their heating ability. After October, you wore all your winter outerwear while driving a Beetle, and tried not to breath on the windshield.
As to Super Beetles, I am very familiar with them too. They were an improvement over the standard Beetle. That upgraded dash, curved windshield, defrost fan and upgraded front end were appreciated to us who grew up in the old Beetles.
I would love to have a navy blue 1959 Beetle convertible – but not to drive.
Mars Red, color code LA3A, is the same shade used in a number of very early Audi Quattros and also the 1985 VW GTI (US market). The early Mk2 Scirocco and late Mk1 Jetta used it as well in the US I believe. It eventually was more or less replaced by Tornado red, a deeper and redder shade. Mars is definitely a color borne of the late 1970s and works on this too with its heavy lean towards orange. I used it when I repainted my first motorcycle around 1989…
I don’t mind the changes made to the Beetle that made it Super, and actually prefer these large taillights. My main experience with the convertible is that I drove one of the last ones (a ’79?) in triple white down the CA coast and back up over a weekend with a classmate who had injured her hand in a lab we had together in college and she found it hard to shift with the fresh injury, this would be around 1990 or so. It was a triple white and we kept the top down the whole time. The Bug was fine, kept up with traffic in those 55-65mph days, felt torquey enough, and the engine noise mixed with the wind and tire noise gave it a sense of occasion and mechanical interaction.
I’ve come to really enjoy seeing painted metal inside of cars, even when it’s just slivers around the door frame, but better when it’s like in this one (or earlier Beetles with the older dash). It brings the outside inside a bit and reinforces the connection, of course an actual color helps tremendously too. You chose and paid for the color, might as well enjoy it all the time.
A nice car to be sure .
I’m amazed it’s parked out side .
-Nate
According to some sources though, around a dozen KdFs identical to the one pictured above were made by the coachbuilder Autenrieth circa 1938-40,
Hermann Goering was given a cabrio KdF Wagen in 1939 (picture below), and the few others were also snapped up by top Nazi officials. It was the hot new toy.
Other coachbuilders also practiced their art on the Beetle – Beutler, Drews, Hebmüller and many more – in the late ‘40s and ‘50s, but Karmann was the outfit that took it to the industrial level the model deserved.
The reason for that was that Karmann was the only one that was officially contracted/sanctioned by VW (along with Hebmuller) to build them and then be sold through VW dealers, as an official VW product. The others were all private after-market conversions, requiring them to buy a sedan and then cut it down and rebuild it as a cabrio. Needless to say, that was much more expensive, which is why they didn’t survive.
Yes, there’s a picture of
One aspect is the peculiar nature of European cars in Japanese-spec, especially those from the ‘70s and ’80s. This VW Cabriolet was most probably sold here new because it features a tell-tale mix of Euro- and US-spec, plus some local peculiarities: the Euro bumpers combined with the US-spec single-exhaust (i.e. catalytic converter) engine would be odd anywhere but here.
The European Cabrios at this time came standard with fuel injection, even with the English “Fuel Injection” badge on their engine lids, and all these FI engines had single exhausts. So although it’s possible that this Cabrio was originally sold in Japan, it could very likely be a European car that had the required repeaters added. The German and Belgian badges on the rear certainly suggest that.
Are you 100% sure about that? I understood the FI versions (with cat. converter) were not sold in Europe because there was no unleaded fuel there in the late 70s. Pretty sure the last Beetles in Europe were badged as 1303, too…
I’m not. I found a couple in Germany but they may well be imports from the US. I don’t have time to find a definitive answer right now.
There were no catalytic converters in Euro-spec models, Paul.
https://www.automuseum-volkswagen.de/en/the-cars/the-big-beetle-family.html#exhibit4
Which is why I think the one I found is a Japanese model : US engine + Euro bumpers.
The amount of effort VW spent on transforming the Beetle into the Super Beetle is, retrospectively, a bit of a waste, surely. I’m not counting the EFI and catalytic converter – those were mandated by certain markets, so they were the price of doing business in the ‘70s. But the rest of the changes, gradual though they were, were extensive: new nose, new front suspension, bigger front trunk, big curved windscreen, chunky “elephant foot” taillights, the completely (and most unfortunately) revamped dash… All that and the car barely made it to the end of the decade.
Many of the changes you list here were also made to the regular (non Super) Beetle: FI, Cat, large taillights, etc. The only unique changes were from the cowl forward, and these changes were deemed essential to maintain sales interest in Europe for the intervening years (1971-1974) until the Golf came along. I don’t have the numbers readily at hand, but the Super was of course built in very large numbers, and it really did help to keep sales up for that critical era. As to the cost, over the large volumes it was built, they were negligible. VW had amortized the Beetle decades ago, so these changes were chump change compared to what everyone else was investing in new/revised cars at the time.
I’ve never liked the looks of the Super, but I understand why they felt the need to make it.
Europe kept the 1200L going until the end (ie 1978), more or less identical to the 1960 model underneath (swing axles, drum brakes, 34hp engine, etc) and with the old cowl, narrow nose and dash. The elephant taillights and a few other late innovations did make it onto the 1200L, but they were real thrifty with that one.
I’m aware of that.
How much. Serious