Places like Barrett-Jackson attract a certain type of buyer – those with fat wallets. Sure their auction block would be a great place to unload that rusty bug you have under a tarp behind your garage, but auction companies like BJ are very discriminating over what they actually take in. They want low millage, original paint, minimal restro examples only. 

Finding a 50k milage, gently used, 1960s Volkswagen these days is like finding a grandmother at a Metallica concert. Sure there was once a nice little old couple down the street who only drove their 55 beetle from their garage three blocks to church every Sunday, but those days are gone. Most of these vehicles are now in the hands of collectors or enthusiasts.

Surfing the Samba or eBay may only make you depressed if you’re shopping to pick up a good deal or, on the other side of the coin, ecstatic if you’re looking to unload Dad’s dusty relic in the garage. There’s plenty of “piles” (as my friend Scott would say), but the nice hardware is going for $10k-$20k, with prime examples going for $30k or even $40k for a trailer queen.

Are people really getting those prices? We’ll if eBay says so, then probably yes. I wouldn’t belive those ads asking for $75k on the Samba, that’s Barrett-Jackson territory. Those sellers are dreamers, but who knows? Some people have more money than brains.

So how much is too much to pay for a vintage VW? Having bought four in my lifetime, I can say rule No. 1 is never pressure yourself. We bought our first VW (a 68 Karmann Ghia) too quickly. It was an impluse buy. We had come into some cash and thought, “Lets go spend it on a cool car that nobody else has.” In hindsight we paid too much for a incomplete and mediocre restoration. But that reality check was long forgotten after we drove her.

Our camper we bought under time pressure with a cross-Canada trip pending. We needed the ultimate RV and bought the best-looking one we could find.
 
Our third child was a pile — a 1970 tranporter — but we new that, so at least it was an honest pile.

So have patience, the right old Volkswagen will eventually find you.

Rule No. 2: Do your research. This is common sense to anybody buying a used car, but you can easily forget it once you see that bug/ghia/bus/thing/type3. This goes both ways. If you’re selling, make sure you have all the paperwork you can dig up on the vehicle. History is important.

When we bought the Karmann Ghia, part of my reasoning with my partner was the inevitable appreciation of the vehicle over time. I left out the part about owning a car that would be high maintenance and only be usable for half the year. Sorry Julia. 

Was my first statement correct? Yes. Mostly. Vintage autos do appreciate — as long as they don’t deteriorate. As I said, we paid too much for our Karmann, so it’s taken a few years to improve its value. Looking at eBay and other sites these days, I’d say she’s worth her weight now. We had her appraised a few years ago (future article) and she came in about 15% less than we paid. Since most of the missing parts have been found and incorrect modifcations corrected, we should be in the black. I was told by the appraiser most vintage autos appreciate by at least the cost of inflation.

So that bring us to the current economic times. Welcome to deflation. Is the value of your vintage VW dropping like your mutual funds? 

Fret not. Although not gold bars, old cars enjoy a fairly stable market. There may be fewer buyers. And personal financial situations have driven “not that we’d sell her” type autos out of barns and garages into the marketplace. But you can count on your investment in that old German auto being sound.

People have asked me many a times at shows if our Karmann Ghia or Westfalia were for sale. I’ve trained myself to never say never. Instead I always throw the questions back at them. “How much would you pay for it?” 

One day, somebody will throw a number back at me that will make me scratch my head and stare at the cell phone, wanting to call Julia. 

Vintage automobiles will soon go the route of the volin. You may already be the 3rd 4th or 10th owner of your VW and it will eventually live on without you. Your descendants may own it. Or others. The memories will survive. What else really matters?

Call me a new hippie, but aren’t we all just passing through?