Call for any 1979 Beetle owners

[Herbie]

Hi Guys

I am writing a book on the South African Beetle and is finalizing some of the research. I have found conflicting info in the 1978/9 year Beetles and need to see some more cars of late 1978 early 1979.

According to the VIN codes there were cars made in 1979, but the last car rolled off the line in Jan 1979. Now understanding the workings of VWSA a car would have been considered a 1979 with a 1192xxx VIN as of Aug 1978. Is there perhaps anyone with a car this age that is willing to share a picture of the VIN tag with me for research purposes?

Kind Regards
Neels Muller
Potchefstroom
oh eight three 44999 two one

[retrovan]

You should try to get hold of John Lemon, as he has all the info you will ever need.....

Had his number some time ago, but was lost when some street guy needed my phone more then me ..........

Herman

[Herbie]

Thanks Herman

I have spoken to him...he does have a wealth of knowledge. I got some of the numbers from him but testing it in real life is where the snag comes in. The newest can I have seen thus far...and I hope to see a newer one, was made in Jan 1978...and that includes the original last one that rolled off the production line. It seems like the maybe have built cars according to a sequence but the storing and selling did not necessarily go in the same number sequence. I also keep register of every SP1600 I can find to determine how many of them are still alive, and the newest one is also coincidentally a Jan 1978. So in seeing newer cars may either prove or destroy a hypothesis I have....

[calooker]

In all my years never seen a 1192xxx VIN in SA

[Herbie]

You are 100% correct...if the "last one" was built in Jan 1978 then I suppose they stopped production somewhere there and sold stock that was still available up until Jan 1979...but still with 1978 VIN numbers...that is my hypothesis. Do you still have your SP?

[fig]

IIRC, the last SA Beetle rolled off the line on 8 January 1979, but I'm subject to correction. I very much doubt any of the Beetles built after August 1978 had 1979 VINs. I'd be interested to hear what you discover.

[calooker]

Yes still have my SP, not driven it in about 3 months, that reminds me, I need to buy a new battery.....

[Jdt1976]

IIRC, the last SA Beetle rolled off the line on 8 January 1979, but I'm subject to correction. I very much doubt any of the Beetles built after August 1978 had 1979 VINs. I'd be interested to hear what you discover.

Was the year on the VIN tag changed to the next year after August or was say for instance a Nov 1978 would still have a 8 on the VIN?

[fig]

IIRC, the last SA Beetle rolled off the line on 8 January 1979, but I'm subject to correction. I very much doubt any of the Beetles built after August 1978 had 1979 VINs. I'd be interested to hear what you discover.

Was the year on the VIN tag changed to the next year after August or was say for instance a Nov 1978 would still have a 8 on the VIN?

SA VIN numbers for German built cars were issued in Germany. The VW new model year started in August, so that's when VINs changed to the new MY. In SA, VWSA seems to have changed models in November, which probably gave lead time for transporting CKD kits to SA for local assembly, but the VINs would date from when they were issued. I've heard the transport time from Germany to SA was 6-8 weeks, then add the local assembly time.

FWIW, my full import 1970 Westfalia camper was built in the first week of August 1969 and the original owner collected it from Lindsay Saker in Mooi St Joburg on 9 November 1969.

[Jdt1976]

Thank Fig. I am not so familiar with the VIN and info of the later models.
Reason why I asked, I read somewhere the last 6 digits of the VIN shows if it was built after August. Sure someone would know.

[retrovan]

as VWSA insisted that every dealer carried a health stock at all times, I am sure Beetles of all models where sold well into the 80's.

But would they have opened a new year record book for 3 months of production, as they knew in advance that they stopping production,

Who knows ??

Herman

[Herbie]

It remains a mystery at this point but I am keen to solve it. Under the resources tab on this forum there is an air cooled Bible with VIN numbers, engine numbers, etc. It matches with the info on the Samba. You see the 3rd digit on the VIN number change to the next MY in Aug of that year, in other words in Aug 1977 the VIN would change to 1182xxxx. Also interesting is that for cars made in July and only that month (and I have seen this on 70s models) the 3rd digit in the VIN was still the old year but at the end of the VIN there will be a /next MY e.g. July 1977 will be 1172xxxxxx/8. Here is an example of a 1972 model with a /3 at the end

[Herbie]

The story John Lemon tells, and I also read similar info in CAR magazines of the late 70s is that in mid 1978 they decided to stop production of all models except for the 1300. This does not correlate with the sales figures captured in the auto digest...

In 1978 they sold 2496 1300 models, 3249 1600 models which included the standard, 1600L / DL, the SP1600 and the Snug Bug and lastly 396 1600S models. One can argue that the stock was built and they sold what they had available.

Sales figures of 1979 includes only 280 1300 models and 25 1600 models.

The newest VIN tag I have seen thus far is Jan 1978. So that brings me to my hypothesis that cars were only made up until early 1978 and the stock was sold until finished which rolled over into 1979. They may have stopped production of the other models at some point but the stock levels may have been high when you look at the sales figures.

And hence the reason I am looking for 1978/9 VIN plates to get more puzzle pieces LOL
N

[retrovan]

Trying to think back I can not think that VW would have slowed or stopped the beetle production until the last one came off the line.

VW is know to stock pile cars when a new model is introduced to allow sales during the conversion of the production lines to the new model.

It makes sense that the production was aimed to stop at model year end and that was when they started to run out the production line ending with the last beetle.

You must remember it takes about 3 months to run out a production line taking in consideration, suppliers, stores, semi built up stock, raw materials, and hardware.

omo

Herman

[fig]

Thank Fig. I am not so familiar with the VIN and info of the later models.
Reason why I asked, I read somewhere the last 6 digits of the VIN shows if it was built after August. Sure someone would know.

The last 6 digits of the VIN are sequential, starting from 000 001 and ending at whatever number was finally produced in that year. So yes, they can give an idea when a car was built if you know the total produced in the year and divide by 12, to get avaerage monthly production. All the VIN lists I use list the last VIN produced each month, so it's easy to tell from VIN. The lists from the 1970s often only have the last VINs produced in July and December, which may relate to what you were told.