Ever since I was a kid, I’ve taken a lot of joy in being able to identify the year of any Volkswagen Beetle at a glance, thanks to my near-memorization of the What Year Is It? pamphlet my dad got from a VW dealer when I was little. But as I’ve grown older and my access to information and the world has increased, I realized that my Beetle year-identifying abilities are mostly focused on export/American-market cars, and there are some Beetle variants I never encountered. Like the spartan, basic Beetle 1200.
Yes, for us Americans used to the Beetles we got, it’s kind of amazing to realize that there was a more minimal and spartan Beetle out there. The cars that came to the US were the fully-optioned ones with the biggest, latest engines, but back in Europe and many other markets daring cheapskates could buy a Beetle with hardly any interior amenities and engines that hadn’t been standard on export Beetles for years and years.
For a while, this means that in Europe there were three distinct types of Beetles available at once, five if you count the multiple engine options in the Super Beetles:
What you’re looking at, in these pages from a 1973 brochure, are the Beetles 1200, 1300, and the 1303. In America, we got the equivalent of the 1300 S and 1303 S – the standard, torsion-bar-suspension Beetle with a 1600cc/dual port/60 bhp engine and the Super Beetle with the big trunk, big windshield, MacPherson strut front suspension and 1600cc/dual port/60 bhp engine.
But in those other markets, you could get that Beetle 1200, with a 1192cc engine making that-half-is-important 41.5 bhp! That engine hadn’t been available in America since 1965! And here it is, eight years later, and actually continued well beyond that.
Here’s an old factory photo of our trio of Beetles: from left to right, 1200, Super/1303, and 1300/standard Beetle.
From the rear you can see that the 1300 and 1303 have the extra air-intake vents on the engine lid, since those beefy 1600cc engines sucked air more greedily, and the 1200 somehow retains the simple oval taillights that, in America, hadn’t been on Beetle butts since 1967.
Compared to the 1300 Beetle, the 1200 was a strange (well, to my eyes) mix of old and new Beetle body parts. 1968 is usually thought of as the dividing year between the “classic” and “modern” Beetles, but the 1200 is something of a mix still. Most of the body is the 1968 and up style, but the fenders are like US-spec 1967 ones, with upright sealed-beam headlights but still retaining the horn grilles, and no bumper bracket mounting slots.
The bumper – which is like the old pre-’68 bumper (minus the bumper guards and overriders seen on export Beetles)– is mounted via brackets on the lower front valence panel, between the fenders. It’s also, as you can see, mounted a bit lower. Also, those little )-shaped cabin air extraction vents (and excellent rust traps) that Beetles have had behind the rear side windows since 1971 are blanked off on the 1200.
It’s all really strange! At least, again, to me. The interiors were more basic, too, with no padding on the dash (which is just painted metal) and and a simpler, older-style steering wheel, as you can see on this one for sale:
It’s so minimal! I kind of love it. These were used extensively by the German post office, the Bundespost, which bought these basic Beetles in big yellow fleets:
Those are a bit older up above, with the old-style sloping, double-glass headlights, but the later ones really weren’t all that different. It’s amazing how long VW built these older-type Beetles with the old 1200 engines! European cheapskates had so many more options than American ones!
Speaking of cheap, I’m also always amazed at what was made optional in Europe compared to the US. In that shot of a 1972 Super Beetle up above, which you would think would have all the candy, you can see that the taillights lack a reverse lamp, which was an option! Here’s a page of all the options:
Reverse lamps, high-back seats with headrests, glove box locks, rear window defrosters, padded dashboards, day/night mirrors, all this stuff was standard on all the Beetles that came to America. I’m still amazed it was somehow not more expensive to make separate taillight lenses with a red section instead of a clear section at the bottom for the non-reverse lamp buyers, but I guess that was the case, as VW did so on multiple occasions, for multiple types of taillights on Beetles and Golfs.
I do sort of wish we had gotten these dirt-cheap Beetles here in America; there’s something about a truly stripped-down car that gives me some perverse joy, and I think it’s a class of car we’ve always sorely lacked in America, this showy land of plenty. Maybe sometimes too much?
Something I just noticed for the first time in AircooleDrew’s photo of his dash is how the orientation of the digits on the speedometer flip going from 20-30. It’s something I had never thought about before.
Late 60’s Mercedes speedos (at least my neighbor’s 4M 220D) had little hash marks indicating max speeds for the first three gears.
Even my ’88 300TE had those, so did VWs right though the A1 era. In the olde countries, a tachometer was not standard equipment on any of them.
Was your 300TE a manual or automatic? I’m not sure why an automatic would need the hash marks, but maybe a last ditch reminder to not put the automatic in an ill-advised gear?
All Mercedes had the speedometer hashmarks – regardless of whether the car was a 240D 4-speed or a 6.9.
The Beetles had those, too. So many details that kids who grew up with VWs can remember more than half a century later.
As a Beetle-obsessed kid, I was at least tangentially aware that other parts of the world got Beetles at a lower spec than those sold in the US.
But I still get a little spooked by Brazilian stuff, most especially the van with the T3 nose on a T2 body.
I recall seeing my parents’ ‘67 Beetle on a service lift when I was a little kid, probably the first time I had paid attention to something like that. The wheels angled oddly in once the weight was off them, I assume it was a preloaded suspension that relaxed on the lift? It seemed improbable that this would work, even to my pre-engineer brain.
In that shot of the one green and two blue Beetles, the wipers on the green one are reversed and spaced differently on the cowl. The green one has wipers like we commonly think of them (in the US), pointing away from the driver side. The blue ones are opposite and smaller.
The green one is a Super Beetle which has a larger, more curved windshield and different wiper size and positioning than the basic model.
Yeah but why reverse them? Presumably the curved windshield is symmetrical, and with twin wipers the one closest to the driver should provide more visibility.
If you look at the green super beetle, the driver side wiper goes vertical on the driver side and it is longer, so the most possible visibility on the drivers side. On the cheapo beetles, the wipers are smaller and swipe the opposite way, so the worst possible visibility on the drivers side because that upper corner does not get wiped.
Of course this may only matter to windshield wiper fetishists, but I’m willing to bet we have a few here. I myself have Mercedes W124 with a spectacularly complex mono-wiper so I’ll think about this shit all day.
https://youtu.be/KHtEAMwcWI4
My first beetle was a raw 1200 1971 (in France).No windshield cleaning pump but instead an over inflated spare tire in the frunk connected to the windshield liquid tank.
It took me months that by rotating the lights button I could adjust the gauge light intensity. Why this unecessary feature ??
Because sometimes you want the light to be dimmer. (Or brighter, perhaps)
brighter… with 6V 🙂
Torch will correct me, but I am pretty sure the spare tire-powered windscreen wash was a Beetle thing right to the end. Kind of brilliant really.
Pre-76 Triumph Spitfires the wiper knob was a push-pump. You just pushed it repeatedly to squirt the windshield.
To me, the Super Beetle is sort of like when your favorite indie band signs with Warner Brothers, and their next album is huge, but it’s just not the same.
To me, the 1200 is a lot more attractive in looks than the 1300. I like the painted metal interior and older looking steering wheel, and the more simple engine cover and horn vents up front.
I prefer a horn ring on the steering wheel, but the painted dash is more attractive (and, really, did the thin textured vinyl covering really count as a proper pad anyway?). I know of some people who have peeled off the pad on US spec cars and polished up the underlying paint, it can come out nice, but is a hassle with all the glue to remove and different knobs and trim pieces that have to be swapped. But the old style painted metal dash is always under there (unless it’s a later Super Beetle with the full new plastic one) – like how the early 1960s Jeep face is behind the 1980s plastichrome on a Grand Wagoneer
This was a great article, Jason!
I love the look of the 67 fenders and blade bumpers on the late models. I have a few touches from those spartan beetles on my restored 68. I removed my dash pad and welded all of the holes shut, but that left me with the issue of having the raised dash vents (they were raised to accommodate the thick dash pad) so I was able to find some low-pro vents from a European 1200 to install in mine.
The removal of the pad makes such a huge difference in the later cars. Probably the best thing I did to my car while I restored it.
[img]https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/2443754.jpg[/img]
Oopsie, wrong link.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/2443754.jpg
Stunning.
Thank you! I painted it myself, so it’s far from perfect up close but I love the way it turned out. I still have to add the remaining bits of chrome trim across the dash and glove box door, and I eventually want to refinish/swap all of the dash controls out for ivory ones. The work never seems to be done, but that’s the fun of classic project cars!
I’m working on an early Corvair owned by a friend (I want the car actually) and fully understand. There is a balance between original and idealized I’m hoping to maintain. For instance, the rear mounted spare is flipped and has a period whitewall and full wheel cover. Ridiculous but somehow appropriate as it will never be used anyway.
That balance is so important! I would love to get my hands on a Corvair. As is fairly obvious by my username, I love aircooled engines, and have always been enamored by the Corvair lineup. The Greenbriar would be the one to have for me!
I installed a trimmed “Tartopper” as I hate the look of a modern battery in an older car.
When my parents came to visit right after buying my 73 Super Beetle they were amazed that the car had a two speed fan, rear window defroster and a functional heat.
One of my favorite vehicles was the 73 Chevy LUV I bought new for $2,200 ($65/mo). Zero options. No A/C, radio. Manual with vinyl floor. It had an Isuzu 1.8 OHC with a four speed. It was a good looking lightweight truck and ran great. The only downside was the 8 gal. fuel tank during the gas crisis right after I bought it. Kept it six years then gave it to my dad who killed it with neglect.
Out of necessity–six kids to feed on a modest salary–my father went through an expert phase in obtaining the most stripped-down trims that would do the job: carry 8 people and be bulletproof reliable for work, which involved a lot of driving. The pinnacle was the ’72 Dodge Sportsman van, which he ordered to his exacting specs. The only option checked was the extra bench in the back. And maybe the flip-out windows? It was bare metal inside other than the front seat area with its door cards, headliner and some kind of floor covering. Power nothing, no radio or A/C, 3 on the tree.
Next up was a near-identical ’75 Plymouth Voyager, in which he splurged on the automatic. Both vans were delightful on long, hot rides to the Jersey shore. Then, as whole-family outings became a rarity, there was a ’79 Nova, also with the automatic and nothing else. I learned to drive in that car.
My old man, (5-10 kids), depending on the divorce number at the time, had one of these as well. Same year as well I think. The current stepmother of that year refused to drive, or be seen in it at all.
318 V8, I believe, auto and A/C. Our interior was finished out completely though. All the options as well.
I remember well being 17 and doing extreme burn outs in that thing. Like tire smoking huge amounts.
We had a spot in the driveway that ice would freeze on which created a 10 foot long opportunity to make those rear tires start cooking big time. One a good morning I could achieve almost 40 mph on the speedo before hitting the pavement. Which led to some epic tire marks in the driveway. And the neighbors calling the cops more often than not.
My stepmom would encourage me to drive it to school, just to get it out of her sight.
Once my friends saw it in the parking lot, it became the official weed smoking vehicle for the senior class. Would park it so the school authorities were only able to see the rear door windows, which I covered with a handy 3×5 flag.
It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.
I truly miss those days. And that van.