Description

1966 Volkswagen Beetle 1300

Astounding ONE-owner car, bought new in 1966 and still used daily by our 88-year old vendor; beautifully maintained and presented with host of new boxed spares and enormous history file chronologically organised

Incredible really, and so unusual to find nowadays several of the motoring papers/mags have all been keen to do news items on this car and its story.

Bought brand new in January 1966 by our now 88 year old vendor, it has been his sole car since then, loved and maintained by him carefully, and meticulously since until now, with his eyesight failing he has reluctantly decided to give up driving and use the funds to pay for his wife’s home-care – what a man.

Despite his failing eyes, he is as fit as a fiddle and maintained the car religiously himself until recently when his local garage stepped in under his direction.  He has amassed a considerable number of very useful spare parts, many of which are new including two spare heat exchangers, all carefully packaged, labelled and detailed in lists, with the values and information carefully recorded.

 Our Beetle vendor trained as part of the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) and as such has been well qualified to work on his car.

The Beetle is wonderfully unmolested and original given its sole ownership, the only parts replaced have been normal service consumables as well as the wings and running boards which have been replaced with galvanised items and the car was re-painted in its original colour about three years ago.

The interior, engine and under bonnet are as they were when he bought it, save for fitment of an additional Ammeter gauge in the dash.  The carb has been re-built and the underside religiously wax-oiled every year, including him removing the old wax-oil before retreatment to ensure the car remained rust free.

Under the front bonnet, we find the spare and tool kit including special tool to remove the original hub caps. In the cabin, we note fitment of a rear window de-mister, made by the vendor using heat off the heat exchangers to feed hot air to de-mist the rear window.

We were treated to a short drive in the car on our visit, which was likely his final drive and it drove as it should, starting promptly and running sweetly as we purred around the lanes of rural Shropshire.

The history file includes documentation dating back many, many years and also includes a compendium of VW ‘Safer Motoring’ magazines collected by our man since the 1960s. we also find some 44 old MOTs dating back to 1972, bills for parts and maintenance, the V5C, old tax discs, price list of included spare parts totalling some £698.64, the original service booklet showing it was supplied new by Devonshire Motors VW main dealer of Barnstaple, Devon on December 31^st 1966 and includes three stamps from ’66 and two in ’67 then hand written entries and detail from then until 1971 when the book was completed.

We also find a further six pages of detailed maintenance log from 53,520 miles (in what looks like the mid/late ‘70s right up to 112,435 miles in June 2016. The car currently shows just 14,323 (114,323) miles, plus the original owner’s manual and two files of bills, one of Heritage parts (in chronological order) purchased to keep the car on-point, up to scratch and in reserve, just in case, dating back to 2008 and the 2^nd file of bills for maintenance works undertaken, also in chronological order dating back to 1982 including the most recent wax-oil protection in October 2021, £1,900 spent in August 2020 on front suspension work, works to the braking system, other repairs and vehicle inspection and valuation which estimated the value to be £18,000 plus further recent bills for other works undertaken amounting to several thousand in the last few years alone, but in all date back to 1982.

The Beetle although obviously Tax and MOT exempt has been presented for MOT every year, and has never failed, the current MOT is valid until the 24^th November 2022 with no advisories recorded.

Ready to be enjoyed and cherished, this is a most unusual example of one of the world’s most iconic and loved machines.  We all hope the car goes to someone who really appreciates the history, the spare parts, the story and the condition because the vendor was agonising over having to part with his dear friend of 57 years.

For more information contact - will.daniels@brightwells.com