Dateline Somerville, NJ: A classic 1956 Beetle has emerged after a long slumber. It is now running and available for purchase . . . for only $20,000!
When I think “Classic Beetle”, this is image that comes to mind: the iconic Beetle shape, the double bumpers, the little oval grilles up front; looking ratty but still serviceable.
Text from the Craigslist ad:
1956 VW Beetle Oval window. My Father purchased this car in 1966 and drove it until it had brake problems and parked in the garage in 1972. The car has sat stored in the garage for the last 50 years, since 1972. We have repaired the brake issue and have the car running and driving. Very solid car with no rot, unlike most cars having extensive rotting that are this old, especially on the east coast. The car does need restoration. Buyer responsible for delivery/ pickup. Cash only $20,000 or best offer. Serious buyers can inspect the car by appointment only. No low-ball offers needed.
Small window in back. From this angle, it looks very 1930s Streamline Moderne.
To me, this is what Curbside Classic is all about–I love the fact that this VW is so original and unrestored. And running! It’s as if someone just plucked an old Beetle out of 1972, put it in a time machine, and teleported it to 2022. Even down to the windshield inspection sticker!
Steering wheel and dashboard reminds me of a school bus.
There are so many small details to study:
Original engine?
Gas tank (?) under the hood.
“Waffle” stampings in the floorpans.
There’s even a video:
“I’ve got a slightly used ’56 Beetle in the back row. $20,000 and it’s yours!”
The idea of a worn Bug like this being worth $20,000 is kind of amazing–used car dealers and customers in the ’50s and ’60s would never believe such a thing is possible. But many decades have passed, the car crushers have done their work well, and the formerly ordinary is now exotic, patina and all! Where else are you going to find that?
Also from Craigslist: 1954 Mercury pulled out of a garage in East Orange. (Parked since 1964)
Incidentally, New Jersey is a good place to find cars that have been hidden for decades. True, Jersey is a small state, but it’s so densely populated. Think of it–all those houses, garages, storage buildings–the odds of finding something like this become more likely.
Also from New Jersey, this Corvette recently emerged after being stored for 50 years, and was recently offered for sale.
Then there’s this 1929 Packard limousine which was converted into a tow truck [probably in the 1940s(?)] that turned up on Long Island Craigslist. It also had been sitting 50 years, and was priced at that magic number: $20,000.
And, by the way, when I bought my 1958 Ford on Craigslist in 2014, the car had probably been sitting for 18 years in storage, not moving. The old tires had rotted away, but the engine ran–and today the Ford is still running and driving great!
I have a saying and it applies to CCs: “You never know what the new day will bring.” For those who think all the old cars have been found, trust me–they’re still out there, sealed up in dusty garages–lurking–hidden from public view. Awaiting the day they will emerge from the dark and go into the light!
Related post on a similar Volkswagen.
More photos:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOWn5rrS4TkPn4SRhB6Gl4dol3FhNVEKPWCmhuRGOcERm19bZ8HMaOaV1vp57nQtw?key=WS13ZFBpalJMZ2YzUk1HU3J6REJYLXFMVmlhSUhR
These abandoned-yet-not-abandoned cars always fascinate me. There is one in a relative’s garage, a VW-based kit car replica of a 1930’s British Frazier-Nash. It was built in the 70s, driven some, and has been parked for probably 40 years. There was a time when I might have relished the challenge of getting it out and driving again, but I think that time has passed. The owner is not interested in doing anything with it, which includes titling and selling it. So it sits. If the car were an unmolested Beetle it would probably have some value, but I doubt that the kit-car does.
“The owner is not interested in doing anything with it …”
I find it fascinating that so many owners of old, dusty, potentially lucrative collectibles that haven’t moved in decades, refuse to sell them. They seem content to see them slowly rot away, diminishing in value until totally worthless.
My wife had an uncle who had a ‘62 T Bird that he bought new. He stopped driving for health reasons in about 1995 and parked the car in back of the house unprotected. At the time it was in good condition with only 65,000 miles. He refused all offers to sell. It sat there untouched for 15 years, until his death. During this period rain leaks and the elements turned it into a rusted, mildewed hulk. His estate sold it for scrap.
No, I think it’s very understandable. The uncle thought/hoped he’s get better, didn’t want to admit failing health, and kept it assuming he’d soon be driving it again.
The biggest appeal is to baby boomers like me who learned the stick shift on my sister Karmann Ghia. Then had a ’63 Beetle (so loved that car) and a ’69 Beetle.
Not sure if I would want to go thru the renovation process without a JC Whitney catalog at my side 🚗🚗🚗
About 10 years ago, a coworker offered to sell me a ’59 Beetle from her great aunt’s estate. It was a one-owner car, with every bit of paperwork from Day 1. Included was a dealer-performed engine swap. It was a very nice, clean, desert car, in mostly original condition, with one respray. The ask was $10,000.
I did my research and learned the car was probably worth every bit of $10k, but I was looking to drive it for a bit and then flip it, and there wasn’t any room for a profit at the $10k price.
Pardon me while I go kick myself.
What is the gauge to the left of the speedometer? I have very early childhood memories of a Beetle, it might have been a ’53 but not certain, and I know for sure it didn’t have a gas gauge, just a handle under the dash to open up the reserve tank.
In 1970 I’d have been astounded by a car sitting in a private garage “since 1920,” but here in 2022 I can totally see a 50-year nap for a car. I guess keeping it out of the weather, and keeping vermin out, seem to be the secret. Doubtless there are plenty more–and not just in NJ.
I’ll guess VW seller gets more-or-less the asking price on this one…we’ll see!
Another nice old survivor .
The gauge is an aftermarket fuel level gauge, once very common, not so much these days .
The video is weak, car sounds okay but a closer look would be very wise .
Looks decent, a restoration will co$t more than the car .
-Nate
Also, the front turn signals are from a ’58 or later, instead of the originals which would have been mounted below and outboard of the headlights.
VWs in that period were often repaired with parts from more recent years, since the compatibility was designed in. On my street in the late sixties was an oval window bug with the ’58 and later turn signals… and Semaphores.
The turn signals jumped out at me too.
A ’56 grey/bronze? roll-top beetle was my first “POV” as a draftee in Germany in 1965. I paid 300 bucks for it. T’was in nice condition, being “almost new”. Of course, ALL cars in Deutchland were VWs back then, unless you were of priviledge, & did the Benz or BMW 1800 thing. That gas gauge on the dash had to be an add-on, unless there was a US spec import spec requiring one. My gas gauge was a lined wooden stick to be inserted directly in the underhood tank. So, I kept it for about 6 months, selling it to another GI for the same 300 bucks. Of course, no one would imagine a ratty one collectiing grime for 50 years would look for a 20K bill to drive it away.
I love these old Beetles. I lusted after an oval window back in the day, but never quite connected with one that seemed suitable, as most were getting a bit tatty by then.
This looks to be a pretty solid car. And probably worth its asking price, or close to it. I’d leave it as is, and just fix whatever it needed to run. It wears its age proudly.
I agree, tho I’d probably be moved to get one of those under-the-hood cardboard instrument panel covers. The rest just has a lived-in look.
Gad that Mercury, parked since 1964? That city has changed SO dramatically in the intervening years, just after its confinement started, that its likely the owner fled for suburbs further west and left the car behind. Have an Aunt in law who had to be sky-hooked out of her family home in an adjacent town, well after the transition.
Latest news: 1954 Packard Cavalier just pulled from an Arkansas barn after sitting 51 years:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/165367190028?hash=item2680a7120c:g:4u8AAOSwAl1iIilz
A house a few blocks from me has a similar car in its driveway. Their Beetle is much, much rustier. Its front suspension is either collapsed or was lowered. The interior doesn’t look like a safe place to be without a current tetanus shot. I first saw it almost three years ago, and I figured that they had it as yard art, or perhaps to discourage the rate of change from a laid-back beach neighborhood to a bunch of properties for the asset class to hold as assets.
I figured the Beetle had been parked for at least a decade and had been neglected long before that. A month or two ago, my head was turned by the familiar air-cooled sound, and there it was, ambling over the General Booth Bridge. I rode my bicycle past their house a few days later. The Beetle was back in its spot, looking as derelict as ever.
Fuel gauge isnt original they didnt have one, you got a graduated stick to dip the tank with, oddly enough a guy in Hastings NZ had an original 56 barn found and revived the car still exists though the owner has passed away,
I regularly drove a 55 single exhaust beetle in highschool no performance or lights dodgy brakes yet the car was in good shape and mechanical condition its just how they were.
If you put the original price of the bug in an index fund in 1956, what would it be worth today?
First answer on Google says: If you invested $100 in the S&P 500 at the beginning of 1956, you would have about $71,151.87 at the beginning of 2022, assuming you reinvested all dividends. This is a return on investment of 71,051.87%, or 10.45% per year.
A 1956 Bug stickered at around $1,495 from what I can see.
So if you took that money and invested it in the S&P instead and just let it ride, you’d have holdings worth just over a million dollars today. $1,063,720.46 to be exact using the above info. You’d also have had the use of a garage space for all of the time. I guess you could finally buy that same exact Bug now and still have over a million left…
Cars are rarely, if ever, good “investments”, but they do have far more daily utility than a brokerage statement.
After the car has been sitting there for half a century: “we have repaired the brake issue”. So I suppose the brakes are now just like new…
There is something magical about the way that oval window ties the design of the car together and to it’s original era. The interplay of curves and swoops and the air inlet is really quite beautiful. It makes square window VWs look a little bit “retro-moderne” by comparison. I even prefer it over the split-window.
Either the driver is being deliberate in his actions to show the car in motion, or he’s having a bit of an issue doing it.
I can smell the interior of that VW just from the photos.
Didn’t this year of Beetle have semaphores?
https://www.scribd.com/doc/81470708/Volkswagen-Beetle-Spotter-s-Guide-How-to-tell-the-age-of-a-Volkswagen-from-Small-Wonder-The-Amazing-Story-of-the-Volkswagen-Beetle-by-Walter-Henry
I found this Beetle spotters’ guide that says the semaphores went away during 1955, but it also says the front turn signals didn’t move to the tops of the fenders until 1958.
I think semaphores on British cars were made by Lucas. I’d assume the ones on the bug were by Bosch, Hella, or some German vendor.
IIRC the following fact is from the book Small Wonder. Until 1953, IIRC, VW didn’t really have a model year. A bug made in calendar 1951 was a 1951 bug.
I know for a fact that my family’s ’57 had them. I wonder if it varied by factory (I notice the Wolfsburg crest)?
I used to ALL of the useless knowledge about yearly changes in the Beetle, but some of it has fallen away over the years.
I THINK 1954 was the las year for Semaphores.
20 grand seems like a lot, but I suppose considering its condition, it will likely go for around that price. It appears to be have surprisingly little rust, and engine/transmission swaps, if needed, are easy.
The US market 1956 and ’57 Volkswagen sedan had the front turn signals that were below and outboard the headlight housings.
I don’t get it. I saw a 1964 TBird convertible on eBay today, beautiful car, absolutely gorgeous. Low mileage, and they’re asking under fifteen for it. So 20K for this wore out looking Beetle? I don’t think so.
Oops, stand corrected. $14,900, reserve not met. But still, I don’t see 20 grand for that thing.
I’ve only owned watercooled VWs (only make I’ve bought since 1981) but my Dad had a used ’59 he bought in ’66, though this wasn’t his first VW experience…he was in the US Army from ’50 to ’53, when in Germany he was assigned one on occasion (also drove REO truck), no Jeeps (guess they were in Korea?).
Anyhow, my Dad at least asked me many years later about buying a Passat, which was closest VW to what he normally bought (like 50 some years after he owned the Beetle). Though I buy them myself, I didn’t extend the recommendation to my Dad, as I knew him and he wanted a drive and forget car, which hasn’t been my experience (I like VWs but they aren’t really that type of car, especially if you keep them awhile …my current one is going on 24 years so far).
Anyhow, a Beetle would be good for some people, but many really wouldn’t want to be bothered in reality…they were fine 50 years ago, and this one has concessions like a fuel gauge and radio to make daily driving nicer, but having to share the road with modern cars and trucks makes me wince…low horsepower, basically no crash protection, they’d be fine for low traffic situations, but wouldn’t want to drive one regularly in traffic.
My Dad had his up in Vermont…it had good snow traction with rear engine/drive. He replaced it with another rear engine car, this time water cooled, a new ’68 Renault R10, We moved away then back to Vermont 10 years later, when he bought a ’76 Subaru DL when front wheel drive cars started becoming more common (only one Subaru wasn’t FWD back then…even they’ve changed a lot since then)