Help valuing/selling a 1967 VW Beetle (1200 series/F-reg)

DLM

People keep making unsolicited offers. We had one guy offer £800, and the other day "£1,100-and-that's-cuttin'-me-own-throat". Would it be? I've seen people asking over £2k on eBay for just a shell, gutted, and converted into a flowerpot!  

I know precious little about anything car related. It's all guitars for me. Where would I go to ensure my family's not ripped off by someone who offers peanuts then sells the thing on the next day for a massive profit? It's not in the way, we're in no rush to sell, but no longer using it.

It was bought second-hand by my parents and was our family car all my life so far. Now it's off the road and insured accordingly, but has a current MOT. It's still on its first engine, and has 190,000 miles on the clock, I think. Some or all the wings have been replaced with fibreglass ones. Otherwise, I think most stuff is original equipment, and there's all sorts of accessories that could probably be dug out (manual/OEM toolkit[1]).

EDIT: The car is in Darlington, sorry, should have said.

[1]This is like "case candy", right? A quick google for value ideas showed that these things on their own are sold on eBay, like original Fender hang-tags from the 50s.

Foster

Worth contacting a relevant classic car club - they might value it and someone might be interested in buying it too.

If you see a copy of 'practical classics' in sainsburys have a thumb through the back at the price guide, gives rough prices based on conditions

Foster

http://apps.hagerty.com/ukvaluation/index.html?showBacklink=1

DLM

Thanks, @Foster

That Hagerty site is very helpful!

I probably should have said that I'm not in the UK. (Though the car is!) The nearest Sainsbury's is 1,000km away! Maybe I can find that magazine at a newsagent's that does international press, or get one sent over from Blighty.

Foster

I'd suggest that if you're gonna travel 1,000km to Sainsbury's that you do a big shop rather than just buy a magazine. Might as well make the most of it

Neill

I've had a few air cooled VW's, beetles/vans/campers and I owned a 1200 briefly back in the 1970's when they were still making them. 

Though they are horribly underpowered there is a certain affection for the old 1200 and I would be very careful here - even if it's a basket case it's still worth more than you have been offered.  The car has an interesting provenance as well which is worth something. 

There are loads of specialists in the uk and clubs - you don't say where the car is but I'd be surprised if there wasn't an active owners club within striking distance - I would  have a look on the net and if there is a nearby club then contact the secretary, he/she will be able to advise or point you in the right direction.  

TTony

There *must* be VW Beetle owner forums online.

That'd be the first place I'd try.  If it's a UK based one (given that the car is also in the UK), it might prompt some more realistic enquiries from potential buyers too.

underdog

The option is eBay and leave it find its value?

Guitar_Slinger

My grandad bought a 1200 new in 1971 and sold it 22 years later for £2,500.  It was in great condition (apart from the usual rust) and had service history, but there were a few mechanical problems caused by the local VW dealer fitting the wrong (Polo) parts.  My grandad sold it because he was a pensioner and needed a realiable car to visit his mother-in-law.

Bucket

Or look at this site:

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/

Just had a quick look - the very best mid to late-60s 1200s seem to sell for close to £10k. Even one that needs a bit of work should still be hovering around 3-4k I'd have thought...

Unless the car is a total shed that isn't even in driveable condition, the guy offering you £800 can get fucked.

Barney

I used to have beetles and love them ...I'm not up on the price of them now but I would have thought the guy who offered £800 missed a zero off the end...

DrCornelius

I bought my son a 'restored' 71 1500 beetle for £4,000. Private seller, MOT, recent history etc. I Know bugger all about cars and he ripped me off to the point of being fraudulant. I took it to a local specialist (Beetle Magic in Dorset) and the guy basically refused to work on it as it was so knackered under the surface and dangerous it would financially cripple me to get it to the standard he works to.
He suggested Ebay for 'spares or repair' and to cross my fingers.

My Ebay ad was really honest and I put it up for BIN £1500 expecting to get £800 and it went within 15 minutes. 

People fall in love with these things and the guy who bought it was a tractor mechanic, he took one look at it , recognised all the problems and said he was looking forward to spending a year restoring it !

Mine was a total POS and if that went for £1500 yours must be worth at least that.

LuttiS

I have a friend who is a VW nut.. she always goes to "Dubfest" (sp?) which is a VW owner piss up apparently. They all over the country, everyone takes there VW, parks up and leaves the doors open, everyone gets pissed and has a nose at the cars.
Lots for sale there and captive inebriated market

DLM

Thanks very much for your help, chaps!

@Foster I’ve wis’d that! I always shop as big as I can when I come back across the Channel. #MarmiteLovers

@Neill Sorry, I should have said in my OP that the car is in Darlington, I’ve edited it now.

@underdog Yeah, I’m following some auctions for broadly similar cars now.

@Bucket Yeah, he’s a friend of a very close friend of the family, I was a bit worried, really.

 I really can’t say much about condition, I just don’t know: over the years whenever work has needed doing/bits replacing to keep the car roadworthy that’s been done. The car is drivable[1], but I’d not have the first clue if it was knackered under the surface like your son’s, @DrCornelius. Shame Dorset is so far, maybe I can find someone in the North East to take a look via one of those clubs. I’ll give all those search terms a whirl. I’m hoping I won’t need to register for ThatOtherFB for this, though…

 [1] I’ve never driven it. I’ve never driven anything older than 2005, with all a modern car’s conveniences, and don’t drive much – ever – as it is (especially not on what is, after all, the one true side of the road), so I’d be uncomfortable taking it out.

BigMonka

@DLM there are quite a few helpful groups on Facebook, but I can understand if you're reticent to sign up just for that purpose. 
Unfortunately the value is massively affected by the condition. A VW that old is very likely to be rusty in a few places, but it depends if those are structural places or not. The first places people will ask about is the floor plans and the sills.

Have you got any photos? Particularly any that might make my wife agree that we need to buy it as a second car!

57Deluxe

paint it white a slap a no. 53 on it... charge what you like.

DLM

@57Deluxe Bummer. We seem to be missing the one essential accessory that would make that plan work:

http://cdn2-www.craveonline.com/assets/uploads/2013/04/Herbie-Fully-Loaded-NASCAR.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-S4SdgUQAEl0oH.jpg



@BigMonka I'll look, but I don't think any are recent...

The silver lining to this cloud is that the years since have been kinder to our car than to above "accessory"...

Guitar_Slinger

Guitar_Slinger said:

My grandad bought a 1200 new in 1971 and sold it 22 years later for £2,500.  It was in great condition (apart from the usual rust) and had service history, but there were a few mechanical problems caused by the local VW dealer fitting the wrong (Polo) parts.  My grandad sold it because he was a pensioner and needed a realiable car to visit his mother-in-law.

@DLM I had a look at my grandad's car MOT history yesterday. He sold it with 94k miles on the clock, no MOT advisories and over the next six years, it did another 4k miles and each MOST had more advisories, where the thing had rusted to fuck all over.

My grandad put it in the garage every night and I'm assuming the new owner kept it outside, which caused the car's end in a few years.