For today, we’re giving Patrick Bell a bit of a break and I’ll fill in for commentary. Every once in a while, as a recent post showed, I’m reminded that I’m not the only one who enjoys looking at old VWs, be it they’re survivors by the curbside or featured in vintage photos. And thinking some more about it, it’s been a while since we last paid attention to VW owners of the past. So, let’s deal with that omission and revisit the days when air cooled VWs were the norm on daily roads.
In our opening image, this looks like either a ’62 or ’63 Beetle with a Missouri plate. No exact location on this shot, but this traveling lady is more than happy to pose and keep memories of the trip.
Looks like a big family trip, with everyone stopping over for some watermelon time. The low-mounted fender turn signals make the VW a ’56 or ’57 model. It had 36 hp gross/30 net to pull that trailer.
Early Beetles look pretty smart in black, and with whitewalls, they make a winning combination. These two, owner and car, seem to belong together. From this angle, a bit hard to tell, but looks like a ’58-’61 model.
A Type 2 Kombi, in a rather attractive two tone combination and Rhode Island license plates with 1960 registration. The two fellas, one by the door and the other on the passenger seat, look awfully similar with their glasses on.
Beetle options like a sunroof make these ideal cars for fun shooting. Another location hard to track down, but this is one packed Beetle with what looks like a mother and son combo up front and another figure in the back. The model is likely a ’64.
A 1965 model, first year for the larger windows all-round and with amber turn signals on the front fenders and mother and child with closed eyes. Shots with small faults like that are unthinkable in this age of endless disposable selfies… and all more enjoyable for it.
This is likely a ’63 or ’64, this time toughing it out in the winter and doing a good job at it. Looks like husband and wife upfront, both enjoying the wintertime.
Looks like a ’66 model with neat whitewalls and two-tone rims. Fancy ’60s fashions on the passenger, stuff my Mom would have gladly worn. The cars are in a California neighborhood.
Is the fella with a tie ready for an interview? A special event? First day at the office? No idea. Also, no idea about what’s behind the disapproving look of the lady leaning on the ’70 Valiant. I certainly would love to know the story behind this shot. As for the Beetle, it’s a post ’68 model.
A 1968 model with that year’s new bumpers, seat headrests, enlarged turn signals, and other updates. The biggest and most visible upgrades the model had gotten up to that date.
Online search shows this photo to be dated to 1968, so the car is close to new here.
A post ’72 Karmann Ghia soft top with New Jersey plates and a rather sharp looking owner. These two go hand in hand, and are posing next to the Chatham borough limit.
The Beetle, in the customized form many got to know them in the 1970s. And a family that represents that decade well too.
Most likely a ’71 Beetle out for a trip, and this one with neat red interior.
As per online search, we now move to Martha’s Vineyard in 1972, with a couple’s ’71 light blue Beetle model at the center. Next to it, a ’58-’61 model on the left and a Type 3 Squareback on the right. A VW loaded image, ideal to close this gallery with.
My question is can a bug pull a trailer that big ? & safely ? I do remember my uncles 65 It was the first small sporty car to drive After learning to drive a 58 Plymouth wagon that was all manual no power anything not even a radio ! lol
It appears that it did, and with all of 36hp (30 net). So it probably didn’t exactly fly down the highway. It’s all a matter of having reasonable expectations as well as not overloading the hitch by making sure the trailer was loaded properly.
Yeah. That pic , near terrified” me. lol
I don’t think I ever saw a Beetle with a towbar, let alone actually towing anything.
Nice selection! My father bought a new VW 1200 in 1962, I grew up with this car. Good memories 🙂
THANK YOU PAUL ! .
I am loving these as I remember those days .
I’d be skittish about pulling that trailer with the early bug, the trailer may well be heavy enough to push it sideways in a corner and those brakes weren’t any more than needed to halt the Beetle .
-Nate
Don’t thank me. My name is not on the byline.
Fabulous! Loving the color of that ’56 pulling the trailer and the mom and child with the ’65 are adorable. That child is probably in their ’60s by now…
The brown custom is wonderfully ’70s – the family in it are so evocative of that time.
Is it me, or are Volkswagen people generally a happy looking lot?
I agree, they generally seem happy. Maybe it came from the spunkiness of the car. Or perhaps the independence, style, thoughtfulness and/or thriftiness of the owner. The people that I remember had all of these traits.
That guy in a suit and tie looks to be rather tall, which was another plus for the Bug. Can’t see him easily dropping down and squeezing in through that brown Valiant’s front door opening.
The red Beetle in the first picture is like the one my parents bought new although in the UK we didn’t have towel rails or whitewalls. Mum was a new driver and drove the Beetle like she would her FWD Morris Mini and the nearly new Beetle ended upside down in a field. Mum wasn’t badly hurt, the Beetle was rebuilt by Charlie Gray’s garage in Doncaster and they took it rallying.
Dad replaced it with a 1500 notchback. How he convinced Mum to have another VW I don’t know.
So glad one “KG” made the lineup! Spiffy looker too! (and the lady))
Outstanding photos, as always! Image quality is exceptional.
In 56 years of driving I have never driven a Beetle. Only driven an automatic Squareback for one year as a company car. In fact have had only one ride in a Beetle. July 1966 after just moving to the San Fernando Valley. Some woman came over to the house, I don’t know of any connection. picked up my mother and us three kids in the back, to drive up and over Topanga Canyon Rd going to the beach at Santa Monica.,
There’s one VW who was customized with a Rolls-Royce front end in the French movie “On Aura Tout Vu”(1976) starring Pierre Richard.
https://imcdb.org/vehicle_33513-Volkswagen-1200-Typ-1-1968.html
Greats pics reminding me of the people I know who owned Beetles.
I was able to drive a new 1974 “Super Beetle” for a weekend. Drove home to Edmonton on Highway 2 at 70 miles per hour (pre-metric times). It was a well optioned car from a dealer so I could do a radio feature on the Beetle. I was somewhat impressed but felt it was a dated design by then. Hence the reason I didn’t get one after graduating from tech school. The other reason was experiencing a Beetle in winter without a gas heater. No, just no.
By “74”, it was “dated”. No auxiliary heating would be “awful”, at best.They still were selling though.
My uncle’s ,(quite young)co worker got a new “75, SB”.
A two car family, his wife drove a “72ish, Torino wagon”.She commuted under ten miles to work. He did “24-5”.
The wagon was a tight fit in the garage, think it was in there much more then the “Vdub”.
For those who are interested in such things…..:
The first photo is certainly not Missouri. It is West Colfax Avenue, in what is now Lakewood, Colorado. The scene has not changed all that much, mainly much larger trees (a sign of suburbanization), and the Denver West office park straight ahead.
Photo #10, the white beetle with the mountain in the background, is Colorado Springs, with Pikes Peak (America’s Mountain) in the distance.
Thanks for the ID’s on these!
Ironically, this is the second time in a week that one of these vintage shots has featured W. Colfax Ave.
This past weekend, there was a picture taken at Lakeland Fordland, which was about 1.5 mi. from where this VW photo was taken. That photo was in the following post:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-snapshots-and-photography/vintage-snapshots-a-gallery-of-police-cars-1950s-1970s/
Those are not ’58-’61 taillights on that red one in the last photo. I’m thinking ’62-’64? And look at that Pinto wagon! My grandfather had one like that, although I think his was a Mercury Bobcat.
I remember many people with Beetles when I was a kid. One odd combination was with our next door neighbors – they interspersed a series of hot (or hott-ish) Pontiacs like GTOs, LeMans Sprints and Firebirds with VW Beetles. The Beetle really was a car that fit into almost every demographic.
I wonder if that location at Martha’s Vineyard has such a plebian selection of cars today. I doubt it.
Mom and Dad only owned one new car during their marriage (and after their divorce until they passed):
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1958-volkswagen-type-i-deluxe-my-first-ride-in-a-beetle/
That’s Mom, sitting on the beach, early in their marriage.
As one who was a big VW fan back in the 70’s, I don’t buy pic number 2. With a 57/60 HP 1600 maybe, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayby, but with a 36HP no way could it tow a trailer that big. Correction, that heavy. Aside from slow, if you were on any grade at all you wouldn’t have even been able to get it started rolling. And if you were foolish to go into altitude, that 3-3.5% reduction in power per thousand feet would have killed you even more.
Lets go to the mountains! AT 6,000 feet, that 36HP is down around 29HP. That doesn’t work.
Cool pic though!