Air-cooled Beetles! Nearly 50 years after the last ones were sold in the United States and 23 years since the final Vocho rolled off the Puebla line, they still show up in American self-service car graveyards. Here’s a ’72 Super ragtop in Aurora, Colorado.
This car is one of three early-1970s Beetles ( one Super Beetle convertible, one Beetle convertible, one Beetle sedan) that showed up in adjacent rows within a week of one another.
All three had been stored outdoors for many years, maybe several decades, and all have numerous spare parts inside, among the rodent poop and random trash.
The Super Beetle was a mildly updated version of a design that had been around since the 1938 KdF-Wagen. It had a modern MacPherson strut front suspension instead of the ancient torsion-bar rig in the regular Beetle.
Here’s what the regular Beetle’s front suspension looks like. The idea of the Super Beetle was to buy time until the cars that became the Dasher and Rabbit (aka Audi 80/VW Passat and Golf) were ready for showrooms. I’ve owned both regular and Super Beetles and I never thought the Super handled any better than its predecessor (though it did have a bigger frunk).
1971 was the first model year for the Super Beetle to be sold in the United States. For 1973, the Super Beetle got a curved windshield, apparently surrendering to what had looked like a silly fad to Wolfsburgers during the entirety of the 1950s and 1960s.
As it turned out, sales of both the Beetle and Super Beetle overlapped with the Dasher and Rabbit in the United States. The final US-market regular Beetles were 1976 models. For the 1978 and 1979 model years, the Super convertible was the only new Beetle available here.
The Super Beetle always cost a bit more than the same-year regular Beetle. For 1971, the regular Beetle sedan listed at $1,845 while the Super Beetle sedan was $1,985 (about $15,149 and $16,298 in 2026 dollars). I don’t have a 1972 import price guide, so we’re using 1971 prices here.
US-market Beetle convertibles were all Supers from 1971 until the end in 1979. The MSRP for the 1971 Super Convertible was $2,399, or about $19,697 after inflation.
The Super Beetle wasn’t the very cheapest new convertible Americans could buy in 1971, however. The MG Midget and Fiat 850 Spider both beat the Super Beetle soft-top’s sticker price (though they were much smaller cars). For what you got, this car was a great deal.
Super Beetles are much easier to find in American junkyards than regular Beetles nowadays. Of the dozen or so 1971-1979 discarded Beetles I’ve documented since 2007, eight were Supers.
This car is rough, having endured the High Plains elements for long enough to vaporize all the soft parts (including the tarp that once kept the precipitation out).
There’s a 1993 emissions sticker, which gives us an approximate date of this car’s last days on the road.
This AM/FM/cassette radio looks like a factory unit pulled from a late-1970s/early-1980s car.
35,194 miles showing on the odometer. Since this car has spent more years outstanding in its field than driving, that could be the true final mileage (though 135,194 is more likely).
The engine is still in it, which is unusual for an air-cooled VW in a car graveyard after a few days. If this one is original equipment, it’s a 1600 rated at 60 horsepower and 82 pound-feet.
The transmission is the base four-speed manual. Finding reverse can be exciting in an air-cooled VW with worn-out shifter linkage.
The body is battered but not so rusty by air-cooled Beetle standards.
There’s a lot of useful stuff on this car.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
[Images: The Author]
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