Curbside Classics takes you back to 1971 for a virtual comparison test of six small cars, based (and partly borrowed) from a C/D test. This piece tries to give a balanced account of the Beetle’s strengths and weaknesses in its sunset years.
If you were going to a speed-dating event, and were thirty-three years older than all the “competition”, you might be forgiven for wanting some quick cosmetic surgery. But if the result was a reverse Michael Jackson, you’d damn well better hope that your “experience” and “build,” and other timeless qualities are still in demand. Otherwise, your days finding willing partners/buyers are numbered, like this 1971 VW Super Beetle.
By 1970 or so, the Beetle was in terminal decline in Europe and the US. In the Old Country, modern FWD cars like the Fiat 128, the Simca 1100, and the Austin 1100 were light years ahead of the VW in terms of space efficiency, driving dynamics, visibility, and fuel economy.
In the US, the Corolla, Datsun 1200, and the Opel Kadett were nipping at the Beetle’s heels, despite their conventional RWD. But Americans always placed more emphasis on reliability than innovation; the Austin 1100/America had already struck out, and the Simca and Fiat 128 were as yet unproven but highly suspect in that department.
In addition to the new FWD competition in Europe, GM and Ford were known to be developing all-new “killer” small cars for 1971. VW was under the gun. But this was during Wolfsburg’s long performance anxiety period. They’d known for years, even decades that eventually they’d have to replace the Beetle. And despite endless home-brew and Porsche-designed prototypes, all they could come up with was this 1971 Super Beetle, sporting a new front end. Well, Viagra hadn’t been invented yet.
A new front end, period. I guess you could call it one-third of a new car, but then it looks so much like the old one, most people can’t tell the difference. Why bother?
The new MacPherson front suspension and bulbous hood doubled the size of the front luggage compartment from ridiculously small to only somewhat ridiculously small. But hey, the turning circle got a hair smaller. That’s about the extent of it. But for VW purists, the timeless balance and symmetry of Edwin Kommenda’s timeless 1938 design was ruined by the collagen-injected nose. Fortunately, the big noses were only a temporary fad; after 1975, the old one came back until the Beetle’s ultimate if protracted demise.
In terms of dynamic qualities, the Beetle reached a zenith in 1971. Power was up to sixty (gross) horsepower from the 1600cc air cooled boxer thanks to new dual port heads. Zero to sixty now came in sixteen seconds, almost unheard of for a Beetle. That still made it the slowest in this comparison, but only just slightly so, against most of the competition. Economy was down to a disappointing 24 mpg.
The first time I drove one of these and got on the freeway, I was almost a mile down the road before I realized I was still in third gear! The gearing was so much lower with the larger engines; my 40hp Beetle topped out at about forty-five in third gear. Made for quieter cruising too, but the drop in mileage was unacceptable. The 40hp Beetle was the Prius of its time, and a 25% drop in efficiency was a stain on the Beetle’s economy car rep.
The rear suspension had lost its swing axles a couple years earlier. In fact, the Super Beetle now had the same suspension design front and rear as the Porsche 911. As per C/D: “the transients are very quick and the tail wags like a loaded station wagon, but the Beetle no longer feels like it will roll over and play dead if you corner a bit too hard…”
Europeans even got the front disc treatment. But even with the US-spec drum brakes, it had the second best 70-0 panic stop, at 200 feet, one of the benefits of the rear engine. Not to mention the unparalleled traction.
But the interior was as narrow and cramped as 1938, and the heater . . . oh wait, it now had a two-speed electric fan to push the tepid air somewhat faster. Why did you think VW got away with making the Beetle for thirty more years only in balmy Brazil and Mexico?
The Beetle’s decline started earlier and was more rapid in Europe. In the US, VW still moved some 350k units in 1970. The Beetle was (still barely) riding the momentum of its major assets: tank-like build quality, reliability, excellent dealer network and service, and popular sentiment. It was the flower Bug, an icon of a whole generation. But like for lots of sacred cows in 1971, change was in the air, blowing straight-on from the (far) east. Volkswagens don’t like headwinds.
Unsurprisingly, the VW’s build quality is what most impressed the C/D editors too: “The whole car feels as solid as a Supreme Court decision, first-rate materials are used throughout and it is all fastened together as if it was meant to stay that way for several dozen years”. How about three dozen and two, and still going strong?
It didn’t take an oracle to come up with that prophecy. But the outcome is all too obvious to me in the hunt for photographic stand-ins for our six competitors. While I was lucky to find one example of most of them, there are more old Beetles in Eugene than I can shake a camera at. In fact, I’m well on my way to having a complete year-by-year collection, starting with about 1959 or so.
This Super Beetle caught my eye with its fetching red rims and dull-black re-spray. When I think 1971, all I can see in my mind’s eye are bright yellow, green and orange VW’s, and those are not just flashbacks. This oxidized black almost looks like primer, and I like it, in a grudging sort of way. That’s because I’m a purist when it comes to VW’s. Give me an oval-window ’57 with a vintage Oskra twin-carb set up, Porsche slotted wheels, and a little negative camber dialed into the rear wheels, and I’m good to go. And hold the cosmetic surgery.
Curious coincidence that this ’71 Super Beetle was repainted in a very similar matte black as the historically correct 1946 VW CC.
1971 Comparison car #6 is here
I simply don’t understand the nostalgia for these. They were terrible cars.
Years back the grandson had one in his dirty “hippie” phase. I don’t think it was the super model though. Drove it for a couple days once while I let him my Country Squire for hauling.
Death trap on wheels. Cramped and uncomfortable. Like driving a tin can with a clattery engine in the back. The wind would blow the sorry contraption all over the roadway. Slightest hint of rain would make the windows foggy with no recourse from the non-existent defroster.
My first car was a used ’63 and I loved it. Much later I landed in the Northwest and marveled in all the rust-free old cars. I picked up a ’65 bug and discovered all the other ways an old car can die.
Replaced the speedo from a junkyard one day. Two days later a bee crawled out of the little hole for the light. The dial glass is part of the dash, not the speedometer, which the bee made its home in the junkyard. It fought with the needle on the way up, eventually the needle would snap past it. Same battle on the way down. Very entertaining. After awhile it just stayed stuck behind the needle and died there, at 25 mph. Next day I got pulled over for speeding. I told him the story and showed him the bee, swore I’d fix it right away and he let me off. “Never heard that one before.”
I got T-boned in that car, an old guy jumped out of a parking lot right into me, not all that fast really. It folded up like a paper cup. Filled the empty baby seat next to me with shattered glass. That was it. Got a slightly-rusty but great-running small-block ’73 Nova hatch my friend brought out from Wisconsin. I felt a sudden need for heavy iron around me and that baby seat.
Too bad. The Type-1 VW was brilliant.
MikePDX: Thanks for fixing your avatar! Reddy Kilowatt deserves the best!
It’s easy to understand the nostalgia for the Beetle, if you owned one: they were reliable, cheap to buy and run (bought mine for $200 from a hippy in Venice), well-built (350,000 miles on the original motor) and got great gas mileage (my 1958 VW got 30 mpg). My bug rarely broke down, and when it did, I could do all the work myself. The heater was never an issue because we lived in sunny Southern California. In comparison, my dad owned the “technologically superior” 1964 Jaguar E-type: it was always in the shop, ridiculously expensive to have fixed (forget working on it yourself), got around 15 mpg, and parts fell off it like a maple tree molting in the fall.
The matte black finish is popular among a brand of hipster these days. I recently saw a Bentley here in LA with that look. It looked like some death car out of a bad horror flick.
I was just reminded of something – must’ve been that matte black – the 1969 movie “Castle Keep” with Burt Lancaster, Peter Falk and a host of others – yes – that was the only WW2 movie in which a VW ever appeared in, I believe – and it was matte black – it was even shown floating! Historically correct in a weird, weird movie! As far a floating went, some friends and I actually tried this – in the Missouri river at Washington, Missouri in 1967 or so. Yeah, it did float and scared us three absolutely to death! The driver shoved it into reverse and got out of the water real quick. I feel better, now!
Of course the most famous floating VW was this one, from the National Lampoon:
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/08/Ted_Kennedy_VW2_EDIT.jpg
“Give me an oval-window ’57 with a vintage Oskra twin-carb set up, Porsche slotted wheels, and a little negative camber dialed into the rear wheels, and I’m good to go.”
Me too!
Always loved the air-cooled VWs, especially the classic type 1. But I must admit the SB with its strut front end drives, rides, and handles much better than the oldies did. You could always do a 5 speed conversion, for better economy and performance — it’s not cheap, though.
After the passage of so much time I find it looks far less objectionable, too. Maybe I’ll have to find one of those to tow behind my old Revcon…
The correct spelling is Okrasa
More random memories: A buddy of mine back in my air force days owned a dark green VW. He drove it like it was a Porsche, scared me to death several times in it, but always a thrill. Another friend bought a new 1973 model, orange, just like in the photo above, a Super Beetle with the auto stick shift. I took care(!) of it for him while he was overseas for a few months and a week before I got out of the air force, I burnt out #3 piston for not keeping the engine sufficiently revved in the 100°+ heat! VW in Yuba City fixed it under warranty and I kept it well-revved my last three days. Another guy had a red one and he had every panel pin-striped white! I think he waxed it every other day, too, almost as much as I waxed the 1964 Impala I had out there.
My dad had a couple of Super Beetles around ’83-’84. A “promotion” meant that he lost his company car my folks couldn’t afford another car payment. All told, they weren’t too awful compared to the company-issue X-car dad had just turned in. Crude, cramped and dangerously slow, but lots of character. Not bad for a then-12 year old car with 45 year old engineering.
When I was in high school I had a girlfriend who owned a Beetle, a regular one. It was a 1969 model, but by 1977 that thing was a rolling piece of Swiss cheese. But in our teenage ‘cheesieness’ we called the car our “Love Bug”. (Yes, I know, yuck) The heater tubes had rusted out long ago, and it was the only car I think I ever scraped the INSIDE of the windshield after scraping the outside of the windshield. But, with the rear engine we could rarely say we got stuck and have people believe us. Oh well…
Hey look! The edit button is back! Sweet!
My wife’s grandmother bought one of these new in 1971 (a 4-speed) at the age of 62, and drove it until she quit driving at the age of 87. It was creme-colored.
Believe it or not, while she owned it, it was never washed, yet looked like new. Her secret was to park it in the garage and wipe it down with a towel when it got wet. She had the tires, belt, and battery changed every two years just because. It became a family icon.
She willed it to my brother-in-law, who received it in 2003 when she passed. Now, as a 40-year-old car, it only has only 50k miles on it, and still looks great.
My dad had one during embargo years. We loved riding on the tiny running boards as he came up the driveway from work.
I still recall the oil smell and pathetic heater.
He hit a german shepherd and the VW dealer could never repair the resulting front end shimmy. This lead him to conclude that it was the only car he ever owned that was totaled by a dog! Leading him to a “if it can’t be fixed lets try to kill it attitude” in which he never changed the oil, only adding when needed. It was still running well in 1978 when he traded it for a Buick LeSabre turbo. Sadly another sob story….
I was on my way back from Phoenix, AZ yesterday, driving to Gallup, NM using the I-17 to Flagstaff I-40 route. I was just kissing the Flagstaff limits on I-17 when in the opposite direction came a VW Bettle, bright red, chrome gleaming, baby moon style hubcaps and trim rings. A young man was at the wheel and it had the chrome lugage rack on the roof. For a brief second, wizzing through the pines, a few inches of snow on the ground, and the sun shinning brightly… I would have sworn that I had suddenly hit a worm hole and been transported to Bavaria and backward 40 years in time. Beautiful vehicle.
Dan: Glad you had a safe trip! Welcome back! Was the Beetle you saw two-toned? I saw several of those in the San Jose area a few years ago while on vacation. Those are stunning! There’s one near where I live – baby blue with white sides. Pretty cute.
Nope, solid red, which is why the chrome stood out so well.
BTW I answered your question in the “rally wheels” thread about “baby moon hubcaps.” See a guy called “Hubcap Mike” http://hubcapmike.com/ he says the baby moons and trim rings only fit American cars up to 1990 so you’re out of luck on the Impala but he does have the old “racing disks.” Which I personally love.
Back in ’78 a buddy of mine had a pristine dark blue ’67. We put a fresh 1600 dual port with a trick EMPI header/exhaust but most importantly, new heater boxes. Somehow this VW had the best heat I have ever experienced. The heat ducts under the rear seat would put out all kinds of heat, how much heat you ask?? How about enough to melt a plastic bong that was placed in front of the duct behind the drivers seat in about an hour during a road trip. We didn’t notice until we stopped for some munchies and decided to take another hit before hitting the road again. Had to use a soda can………….
Is this really a Super Beetle.?
I thought the Super Beetles all had a curved windshield like the orange one in the other photos. This black one looks like a smaller flat windshield like on the standard beetle.
The Super Beetle name came in 1971 with the introduction of strut front suspension and the longer wheelbase. The curved windshield appeared on Super Beetles starting with the 1973 model.
I’m with you Paul, the earlier the better when it comes to the beetle!
I’ll admit my prejudice. The Super Beetle, in my case a 1972, was my first car; or rather, the first car I had titled in my own name, paid for with the sweat of my brow.
There’s no denying it was obsolete; by modern standards a death trap. The heat exchangers, as with most Beetles with a few salt winters, had rusted out…there was no heat. The cowl fan generated defroster air…COLD defroster air.
For all that, it had appeal. One thing overlooked, here and elsewhere today: That thing was a road car. It was superbly balanced…on one long rural Ohio downgrade, I got the thing over 100 mph. A rush? Lemme TELL ya…
For whatever reason, I’m partial to the light restyling. It was functional (the MacPherson strut suspension, cribbed from Porsche) and to my eye, put the whole front quarter in better proportions. Compared to the standard Beetle (two friends had examples) the steering was very light, and much more precise. It had no more power than the standard, but I was willing to take more chances…the feeling I could drive around cracks in the concrete.
That car, the Super Beetle, was a perfect paradigm of the times. Exaggerated proportions; slightly mod…like boot-cut Levis. Wildly obsolete yet somehow modern. A car for a kid…a kid of those times.
One more thing: Although the Super Beetle/Le Grande Bug ended production in 1975, the Karmann convertible continued to use the Super Beetle chassis right up until its 1980 end. So although the original Beetle soldiered on in the States until 1977, the last legally-imported Beetles were, in fact, of the Super flavor.
In 1982, I inherited a 1973 “Standard” Beetle from my brother. He had bouth it in 1978 from my sister, who bought it new in 1973. A real $1,995 special, no radio, no nothin’.
But that car was so impressively built; the doors were solid, the steel was thick, and everything fit together like a …German car.
Oil changes and valve adjustments were about all it ever needed.
An engine rebuild at 125K, another at 200K. Sold it in 1993 for $1,000. Not a bad resale investment; and that was with the rusted pan under the battery.
I replaced the heater boxes and it would crank out heat like nobody’s business. I keep hearing about “No Heat”, but if you took care and replaced them when they (inevitable) rusted out, you had tons of heat.
One fun fact: I replaced the US selaed beams with Cibie Z-Beams; and if I ran too long on high beams ) made some long bask-roads drives through Alabama and Mississippi in those days), they’d drain the battery, and if I stopped for gas and didn’t run on low beams for a few miles, it wouldn’t re-start. .
I just bought that Beetle in those pics lol
Late to the party here, why have I not seen this site before this week? One of the best, if not the best sites of its type I have run across yet.
Anyway, my first new car was a ’73 Super Beetle (curved windshield). I remember that it came down between the VW and a Corolla, and VW won. After 40 years I don’t remember why but it probably had to do with Toyota being relatively new then and they hadn’t developed the reputation for reliablity they have now. To be honest my Super Beetle was a POS; by 1973 the emissions regs had really eaten into whatever power the flat four had and it was very slow. In addition, as others have mentioned, it wasn’t very economical. I got about 22 MPG, probably because I treated the accelerator as an “off/on” switch until reaching cruising speed. The only good thing to come out of this experience was that I was able to sell the car for what I had paid after driving it a year or so. When the first gas crisis hit in 1974 small cars of any description were easy to sell.