Before I jump into the commentary on this review, it’s worth noting that this car was identified as a “VW Automatic”, and the badge on the rear engine lid reads “VW Automatic”. That’s rather peculiar, as the actual version sold here starting in 1968 was called “VW Automatic Stickshift” and it said so on the engine lids and all the advertising, etc. So VWoA must have made a last-minute decision to change that, and I can see why, as it wasn’t a true automatic. Well, one could start out in top gear, but that was very sloooow, and could heat up the torque converter.
Leaving that aside, the decision to create and add this option was of course an interesting one, as it was clearly intended for American drivers, as two-pedal driving was becoming ever more common. Frankly, I would have recommended that they just install the true three-speed automatic available on the Type 3 (Squareback/Fastback).
Having driven one of these, a former GF’s car, I can add my two cents.
Essentially this was a regular VW manual four speed with the first gear eliminated teamed up with a Saxomat automatic clutch and a torque converter. The clutch was operated by a microswitch on the shift lever; just touching it disengaged the clutch, which was normally done when changing between the three gears available. Unfortunately, I had/have a habit of resting my hand on the shift lever, which resulted in sudden de-clutching while under way, on a lovely trip from Portland out to the Oregon Coast in the fall of 1977. Quite annoying…even R&T noted that issue.
The recommended procedure was to start in 2nd gear (third, in the former four speed), and use 1st (formerly 2nd) only for steep hills and such. Acceleration was a bit leisurely that way, so I tended to start in 1st. But frankly, I would have much preferred to just drive a non-automatic stickshift.
But it did work well enough, and the low-speed nature of the VW engine worked quite well in this type of setup. But R&T asks the same question: why didn’t VW just use the fully automatic they already had, and which was a quite good and efficient unit. On the other hand, R&T points out that this semi-automatic was better in certain regards compared the very sluggish-shifting BW 35, so commonly used on European cars with an automatic.
FWIW, their acceleration numbers (0-60, 1/4 mile, both in 22 seconds) is almost identical to what R&T got for the ’67 1500 they tested the previous year, but then C&D got their ’67 1500 down to 17.4 seconds for the 0-60, so driving style was a factor.
The Automatic Stickshift was the first Beetle to be delivered with the new semi-trailing arm IRS, which was tamer in the back end of the wing axles, although by then that system had been improved by a wider track and anti-camber spring. The regular Beetle still came with that in ’68; starting in ’69 it too got the new IRS.
Otherwise, changes to the ’68 were they usual grab-bag of annual VW changes, although the new bumpers were pretty significant, both visually as well as in effectiveness.
Obviously the Beetle was getting very long in tooth; sales had already been falling in Europe, and they would start to do so after two more years in the US. But R&T wondered if it might go on forever. How about a bit over thirty years more?
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1968 Volkswagen Automatic Stickshift – Chrysler’s Fluid Drive Returns In The Safer Käfer
Wow, 0-60 in 22 seconds. Remember those days?
“One and a thousand, two and a thousand, three…, four…, five…, six…, seven…”
I would have lost count, probably before 40 mph.
#IIRC this was about the same “acceleration” time as a 6 cylinder/Powerglide Chevy was in the early 1950’s?
From the Speedometer Error, actual top speed of 75 would be reading out as a valiant 80 MPH !!!
The g-forces must have been astronomical (measured in 10ths of a thousand). Lol.
Now imagine doing that accelerating on an uphill mountain road. I can. Excruciating and dangerous. These were used cars common in Colorado while I attended university there. It seemed that everyone had a roommate with an old Beetle. Parents bought them for their kids as dependable cheap rides. Most of the time they were. The Rabbit was very popular and I suppose that there were many Beetles being traded in for Rabbits, hence the huge used car market at the time.
I had a girlfriend with a VW automatic like this, and it was a pretty disappointing driving experience. The entire set up seemed to be on the verge of breakdown all the time. During the winter, it would start, but riding in a Beetle was little better than riding in an open horse wagon. Colorado winters are sometimes too rough for Beetle passengers.
Egads this is the exact same car and setup we had for Drivers Ed in HS in ’73. We all learned how to “shift” and change a flat on their Bug. How archaic! But no one had an issue with speeding in a full car… 8^)
The venerable M5 Saxomat .
Slow but reliable .
Like all old Beetles the proper tuning of the engine made a huge difference in how slow these were .
Growing up in the 1950’s in New England we soon learned that riding with others made it not so chilly inside .
VWOA made them change the deck lid script, I too preferred the “automatic stickshift” script version .
-Nate
New VWs also respond VERY well to tuning.
@ Canadianknucklehead :
Modern engines have adjustable valve tappets, ignition timing and carbys ? .
I keep hearing that ‘tuner chips’ simply send incorrect info to the F.I. module .
-Nate
It is interesting how the article, and Paul, mention the low speed characteristics of the VW flat four. I have been thinking about how brands either keep their core beliefs or don’t. In the case of VW, its engines are still low speed units. The power peak of my Golf is 5250 RPM but going that fast for any length of time would cause one to be tossed in jail. Most driving is 1500-2500 RPM, which is pretty much exactly where a VW Beetle flat four would operate.
Also as the article states, the Beetle could be left in second range for all driving, albeit a bit slow. My Golf is very comfortable in third gear, which is good from 30 km/h to 130 km/h. Even on very twisty roads, there is very little need to downshift. In contrast, my 2008 Fit would fall flat on its face any anything below 3000 RPM.
It is interesting how VW has stuck to its core values of providing a cheap, efficient and easy to drive cars
I have owned several Honda cars and they all revved like crazy. It took me a while to get used to the power delivery of the VW. Now I much prefer the lower revving unit.
That’s because your engine is turbocharged, which means it makes its peak power at lower rpm. VW’s NA engines have higher power peaks, and Honda’s turbo engines have power peaks similar to your engine.
If I were going to have a Saxomat-equipped car, I’d rather an NSU Ro80.
With a Ford V-4 in it!
With a Mazda rotary in it. I owned Saab 96 V4’s for 15 years, and I know how unrefined that engine is!
A friends mother had one of these in 1969. Drove it a few times and it was weird how the transmission would instantly disengage (or the clutch engage) with the slightest touch of the shift lever. She had the thing for years with no issues.
Service station where I worked had a couple of these when they first came out in our small rental fleet. Scary sudden clutch disengagement. Rented one to an unfamiliar driver who got into an accident. They didn’t last too long after that.
I think it might be more complicated than that, for I distinctly recall seeing cars badged both with and (as shown in this article) without the scribbled-chrome “Stickshift” below the “Automatic” callout. At least once I was close enough to see the scribble wasn’t missing (no holes). Maybe the scribble was added sometime after the start of things.
I don’t remember seeing any like that. The switchover must have come quite early, as all the advertising introducing it was for the “Automatic Stickshift”. But then there is a bit of lag between the German factory and deliveries over here.
Bit of a mystery, eh! Here’s one, and here’s another. And what are we to make of this later-model car? Two additional clicks on the image will supersize it.
The first two are Australian production cars. That’s how they were badged here. We never got the Stickshift bit on the badge. That wasn’t a term we used back then.
No mystery. The rest of the world got just “VW Automatic”. The US got “Automatic Stickshift”, but obviously that was a last minute change dictated by VWoA, which was a pretty powerful organization. It was up to them to determine all US market advertising, marketing, product mix and product specs.
Fair ’nuff, but then how come I saw more than just one or two “VW Automatic” cars in Denver in the ’80s?
As usual, the logical assumption is the obvious answer, and in this case, it’s been verified:
The VW Automatic was available in numerous global market starting fr the 1968 MY. VW started building them (with the “VW Automatic” badge) several months before they were available for sale in the US. VWoA decided that they were going to market it as the “Automatic Stickshift”. Why? Not totally sure, but possibly they were concerned about the “VW Automatic” being misleading, as it really wasn’t a true automatic; one pretty much had to shift it too. Or it’s because the term “stickshift” was considered to be cool and popular at the time, and they thought that having a stickshift you didn’t need a clutch for might be a marketing plus.
In any case, there was a lag between VWoA deciding on that and the factory in Germany tooling up for a new badge. The first advertisements for it heralded “VW Introduces the Automatic Stickshift”.
But because of that lag, some early US cars came and were sold with the “VWAutomatic” badge. This has been confirmed by those in the know at thesamba.com. Just how many were sold in the US before the badge was changed is a good question, but it will never be answered.
You had a good eye, or maybe you saw the same one twice? Or for some reason Denver got a lot of early ones? Or?
FWIW, I don’t remember seeing one, even though Baltimore was the main POE for VW’s east coast distribution. Most likely I wasn’t looking as closely as you.
The Automatic Stickshift badge went away during the 1969 MY, and reverted to just “Volkswagen”; in the US they got a sticker in the rear window that said “Automatic Stickshift”. VW in Germany got tired of dealing with three different badges, apparently.
I definitely saw more than one—I remember at least a dark blue one, and a used-chewing-gum-greyish-beige one.
Yearly US Beetle sales, from 1949 to 1979, in the link below
1968 was actually ‘peak Beetle’, with 400 000 units sold.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/salesfigurest1.php
Probably 95% of drivers used all three gears as a matter of course. There was no penalty doing so. My mom loved hers because she didn’t have to operate a clutch.
As I recall the full automatics in Type 3’s were physically larger than the autostick transmissions in the Bugs. Maybe VW couldn’t fit a full automatic in the Bug?
My GF always started in 2nd, not first. And from the sound of the engines when one would see one in traffic starting off at a light or stop, I’d say that was a lot more common than just 5%. I’d guess closer to 50%. And that was VW’s recommended procedure, to start in 2, in normal driving.
Undoubtedly, this was targeted to women, and they wanted maximum convenience. A slightly slower take-off didn’t bother them.
The transmission was under the rear luggage compartment. I suspect it would have fit fine, but in worst case they could have raised the floor of that compartment a bit. Pricing was almost certainly the main factor, the same reason Chevy sold the semi-automatic Torque-Drive.
Also, production capacity may well have been an issue, as this transmission was essentially the same as the regular four speed, and could be built on the same lines and with the same equipment. The full automatic was totally different.
I bought a ’69 Beetle with this infernal contraption from a neighbor while I was in high school. I thought I bought a car with a bad transmission when I put it in gear (with my hand firmly on the stick) and the engine revved with no movement. Once I learned to let go of the stick everything worked, but at a glacial pace. The best part was hitting the stick with your knee while trying to maintain 65mph. Did this several times and may explain why I had to rebuild the engine.
A good friend had an early 70’s Beetle with this semi-auto. He used it as a daily driver for 10-12 years, late 70’s to late 80’s. Nearly all its use was in urban and some suburban driving. For that it was just fine. Rust/snow belt life eventually caused its demise. Maintenance was spotty at best.
He usually ignored the recommendation of not using the “first gear”. As I recall that may have caused him some trans repair at some point.
The “automatic stickshift” badging may have been a model year deal. I’m certain that my friend’s Beetle was so equipped.
When I was in high school there was a fellow with this exact car, in maroon.
I’m ashamed to recall that my friends and I called him a very uncomplimentary nickname behind his back because it was an auto-stick. No doubt we were all jealous, as his car was in lovely condition and my own looked like the POS that it mostly was.
As always you can totally tell why conservative and pragmatic VW did things the way they did.
1968: “A whole new generation of drivers … is coming along … [who] are not more than dimly aware that there are such things as clutches and manual transmissions.”
To be fair, it might have actually taken 2 generations, but still prescient.
The three speed autobox used in the Squareback would have required a modification to the Beetle pan to fit. I’m sure that having two different pan stampings would have been cost prohibitive. Some people have cut the pan to make the swap possible. I remember encountering one such car for sale locally a long time ago.
My father was a VW Master Mechanic born, raised, and trained in Germany. I only ever heard him refer to it as the VW Automatic Sh#t Shift.
I briefly worked in a VW shop in the early 70s as a gofer run by a couple of Germans. From Germany with accent, not just heritage. So much so they had one guy who had a “Meister” degree in mechanics and was thought well of because of it.
Anyway, the standard name for them was Sh**stick. Never head them called anything else.
My college roommate had a 73 with Automatic Stickshift, which is the only Beetle I’ve driven. It was an interesting experience compared to a normal manual and it was also fun to see what parts it shared with my 78 Scirocco.
When I was a kid in the mid 79s some Formula Vee racers used Automatic Stickshifts presumably to allow left foot braking or reduce workload. I also saw 4 and even 5 speed versions advertised for sand rails and Baja Bugs in the late 80s.
I had a Auto Stick Shift and loved it. I went through all of the gears while driving it, just like a regular manual transmission. It had pep. I remember living in northern NJ and coming home to see my driveway was plowed in. I just dropped her into first and plowed right through. Caught some air in the process. Fun times.
My mother had one of these…and it was awful. Acceleration was glacial, losing stoplight drags to school busses and loaded dump trucks. 55mph was about it…the car would go faster, but with a cacophony from the engine that bordered on physical pain. From any speed-stop to 80mph-her brother’s car would pull away from the VW. He brother drove a 5000lb Plymouth Fury III, powered by a fire breathing…slant six. Even with 4 people inside and the AC on, the Fury was faster.
I drove a 1969 beetle with this autostick for 5 years this is what I learned, do not start in 2nd(as recommended in the owners manual) always start with 1st then shift to 2nd then 3rd just like you would with a conventional manual,otherwise you won’t be able to keep up with traffic moving away from a stop light
I drove one of these in the 1980s when briefly employed as a VW mechanic. When test driving the the car after working on it I forgot it was an autoshift and jambed the wide brake pedal with my left foot when attempting to depress the ‘clutch’ pedal for a shift. This almost threw me into the windshield!