How many?

FESTERER · 17 October 2013, 12:18

Hi,

Just out of interest, does anyone know how many semi autos were made?

68autobug · 18 October 2013, 05:25

Hi
no one seems to know exactly... they were all made in the one factory in GERMANY...
and exported all over the world.. Not a lot were sold in Australia..
and they were mostly 1968-69-70-71-72 models.. seems most were sold in 1968, when the NEW 1500 model beetle was introduced here.. but whether 100 were sold or less or more???

The USA seems to be the largest market for the AUTOSTICK TYPE 1 BEETLE, plus the KARMANN GHIA also had the autostick... [hard top and soft top [cabriolet] and I presume the type 1 Karmann Cabriolet [beetle convertible] would have been available with the autostick option... so that would add up to a lot of cars... naturally somewhere in the thousands...
its a wonder WOLFSBURG didn't have the exact number made..

cheers

LEE in Australia

68autobug · 20 July 2014, 12:55

They are fairly rare in Europe, including the UK, Australia and New Zealand but are Very numerous in North America. It seems that Most autosticks were sold in the USA. Porsche needed the Autostick transmission for its USA cars. I believe it could have been a joint venture?

Lee

68autobug · 28 July 2014, 17:12

Hi Again
Well I just read recently some where that Not a lot of Autosticks were made compared to manual cars..
although No real figures, it was suggested that the EXTRA cost of the autostick was one reason and the poor fuel mileage was another.
The writer also said the car wasn't as fast as the manual to drive because it had only 3 gears.

At that time I knew the writer didn't own an autostick otherwise they would have known that the top 3 gears were the same as a manual and it was 1st gear that wasn;t used...
because 1st gear would have been useless...
Every autostick owner would know that LOW gear is VERY Low and a lower gear is NOT needed.
So, whether the writer actually knew anything about autosticks?? I don't know...

Lee in Australia

FESTERER · 28 July 2014, 17:21

Think I might send an email to Wolfsburg

68autobug · 29 July 2014, 17:27

Quote from: FESTERER on 28 July 2014, 17:21
Think I might send an email to Wolfsburg

Would be great to get the figures....
but I believe there is only about one person still working in the old VW files etc section...
Best of Luck

Lee

FESTERER · 29 July 2014, 20:38

I received an email back earlier, it said:

thank you for your eMail.

We are very sorry, but in our archive there is no historical tradition
for counts of semi automatic Beetles.

Thank you for your understanding.

Kind regards,
Corporate History Department
Volkswagen Group Communications
i.A. i.A.
Stefani Steiner-Harder Ria Oswald

68autobug · 31 July 2014, 11:16

The Main problem being there were No computers back then so everything was on paper and its probably all been recycled...
That is also the problem with the VW birth certificates and the options etc
the options may have been printed on seperate tags etc.. and they no longer have them. Seeing they made and sold so many millions of beetles , its really no wonder they don't still have all the details.. I presume Most car makers would do the same.. as they are really only interested in selling the cars.. lol.. these days..
although having all the details on computers nakes it very easy now..

cheers

LEE

phxjohn · 01 December 2016, 06:37

Hi everyone,

Better late than never I suppose. On February 02, 2006, Bookwus posted on thesamba.com that about 10% of type 1's imported to the United States were autostick. At that time (of posting) he stated that significantly fewer than 10% remained on the road. Well, it is almost 11 years later and I suspect that the numbers have diminished significantly since 2006.

From Rokurmen January 17, 2006 (this site, Old Forum):
VW produced a total of 610300 Type 1 and Type 14 with Automatic Stick Shift, since August 1967 (1968 Model) until 30th of July, 1976. I take this as total production and not the number exported to the United States.

Thank you,
John

FESTERER · 01 December 2016, 22:19

Hi John,

That's a great bit of info, I gave up looking for an answer when emailing Wolfsburg museum returned no info. There's one thing for sure that they're very scarce now,

Thanks for the reply
Sally

phxjohn · 03 December 2016, 08:47

Hi Sally,

I know that every Beetle for sale is not listed on thesamba.com. However, if I pull a count on total 1968 to 1976 Beetles and then pull a count on autostick Beetles, the autosticks are 2.4 percent of the total. While not exact, that is probably a pretty good estimate of how many autosticks remain.

68autobug · 06 December 2016, 13:51

610,300 VW Autosticks. I would guess that is the number for USA Only .
As far as I know NO type 114 autosticks [Karmann Ghia] were ever sold in Australia.
I do believe that MOST Autosticks were sold in the USA. Left hand Drive.
Very few Right Hand Drive autosticks were sold in UK & Australia & New Zealand Japan.
Guessing total less than 100

?
Makes You wonder why they made any RHD autosticks at all?

Accurate numbers would have been great.

LEE

FESTERER · 06 December 2016, 13:59

I saw someone on a VW Facebook page last week giving a semi auto beetle away, they are in the Channel Islands I think. She wanted it to go to a good home.

68autobug · 06 December 2016, 14:18

That maybe the only one ever in the channel islands???
I just read in A UK Haynes handbook that the autostick beetle was sold in the UK in 1968 and 1969.ONLY
It was a special import in 1970... then NO MORE SOLD....

LEE

Dave · 07 December 2016, 17:00

Quote from: 68autobug on 06 December 2016, 14:18

That maybe the only one ever in the channel islands???
I just read in A UK Haynes handbook that the autostick beetle was sold in the UK in 1968 and 1969.ONLY
It was a special import in 1970... then NO MORE SOLD....

LEE

Our UK '73 must be really rare then