1958 Volkswagen BEETLE

Built between the 3rd and 5th of February 1959, the Beetle was first registered in Germany on the 31st of December 1959, and this delightful left-hand-drive example finally made its way across the English Channel 46 years later on the 15th of December 2005. Registered here ever since, the V5 registration document shows just four previous UK keepers.

Its Zertifikat (Volkswagen build certificate) shows that it was originally fitted with a puny 1.2-litre engine. Now restored and subtly upgraded, it features a much more powerful 1.6-litre engine, complete with disc brakes and a wider, lower stance to help it cope with the extra power. The DVLA was, of course, informed and the logbook reflects the changes that have been made both mechanically and cosmetically.

Cosmetically? Oh yes, because the changes included being professionally painted blue (it was originally black) during its restoration. Plus, if the panel gaps are anything to go by, hours and hours and hours of painstaking work went into putting it all back together.

The result is one of the nicest Beetles we can recall. The resto-modifications and two huge recent bills have left it driving beautifully and looking even better.

The owner bought it to use for a spot of historic motorsport, intending to put a Porsche 356 engine in it. But, as he puts it, “seven cars is just too much - and this is one project too far.” His loss could be your gain, as he looked long and hard before settling on this well-fettled example, so you can bid with confidence.

Best of all, the estimated price is a fraction of what it would cost you to bring one up to the same condition, which means someone could walk away with an absolute bargain.

We are now aware that the full restoration was carried out by "Beetle Magic" and we belive at a cost of approximately £14,000.  

The Beetle was the subject of a bare metal professional restoration around 25,000 miles ago, which means it is still in a fabulous condition. As we mentioned, the panel fit is almost certainly better than anything that was achieved by the factory and the work that was undertaken even included refitting the car’s original trafficators – and they perform flawlessly, rising and falling to order and illuminating as they should – along with new black seals betwixt the wings and body. You know, the bits everyone else skimps on.

The paintwork is very good with a wonderful sheen to it which is set off beautifully by the car’s ripple-free flanks. It’s a pretty colour as well, and so much more interesting than the black it left the factory wearing.

The glistening chromework complements its new colour wonderfully, and it’s all in fine fettle. In fact, it is almost flawless bar the odd 10p-sized patch of orange peel and the occasional stonechip.

The matching Webasto sliding fabric sunroof is in a very good condition, and opens and closes easily. Taut and free of damage, it remains wind- and watertight and so offers the driver the best of all worlds; semi-open motoring when the sun is out, and saloon-like insulation and weatherproofing when it isn’t.

The blue and white painted steel wheels are shod with good tyres, and the chrome hubcaps are in great shape bar a couple of dents on the offside where, we presume, the car has been nudged up against the kerb. Replacing these would be easy enough, and so the worst part of the exterior is the front number plate, which wears more than its fair share of stone chips.

And, the car’s slightly lower and wider stance not only gives the car better handling, it also endows it with a more purposeful look that brings the car slap bang into the 21st century without coming even close to parody.

If the exterior is fabulous, even that is eclipsed by the interior. Recently retrimmed in an attractive and unusual grey hound’s-tooth cloth complete with harmonising blue vinyl, white piping and contrasting stitching, it looks utterly stunning.

The front seats are considerably nicer than the stock items, and the rear even features its own matching cushions. The door and rear side trims have been finished to match the seats and an awful lot of care and thought has gone into the work, which includes useful pleated door pockets. It can’t have been cheap, but it was worth every penny as the whole ensemble looks stunning.

The huge white steering wheel is wonderfully clean and beautifully presented, as is the painted dashboard behind it. A matching white handbrake plus white door handles and window winders add an elegance to the interior it wouldn’t have when it was new and the work has been done so well that it suits the car’s summery, care-free personality to perfection.

The headlining is clean and free of droops, while the blue carpets, which have been bound on their edges with the same grey hound’s-tooth fabric as the seats, are clean and free of wear, damage and other imperfections.

The front ‘boot’ is as clean as the rest of the car, featuring neatly finished painted components, a fabulous period heater, and a freshly painted spare wheel fitted with a brand new tyre.

A modern JVC headunit has been fitted underneath the dashboard on the offside in front of the passenger.

Chrome strips add an elegance to the Beetle’s interior that is at odds with its poverty car status, but they liven the interior up nicely even if a few of them have started to develop something of a patina. That this, and a couple of small marks on the front seats, is the extent of the problems inside the Beetle speaks volumes as to its stunning condition. You really should make the time to pop along to see the old girl here at The Market HQ near Abingdon; as fun summer cars go, this is going to be hard to beat.

The Beetle was lightly recommissioned in October 2018. The work, which cost just shy of a thousand pounds, is detailed on the attached invoice but briefly comprised a service and tappet adjustment, ensuring all critical components and fasteners were tight, sorting out non-functioning warning lights, adjusting the front quarterlights, and removing the first traces of some rust. The recommissioning also highlighted a few small oil leaks from the engine, plus a flickering oil warning light at tickover.

The vendor commissioned Marque specialists Type 2 Detectives to complete the outstanding refurbishment work in September 2019, five months after he bought the car. The £4,000+ bill involved sorting out the recalcitrant wipers, fitting a reconditioned carburettor, carrying out another oil change, rebuilding the kingpins, stripping, cleaning and re-greasing the front wheel bearings, identifying and eradicating a brake fluid leak and fitting new wheel cylinders to the drums and fettling the rear brakes, resealing both rear wheel hubs, fitting new fuel hoses, and realigning the headlights.

Oh, and remember the engine oil leaks and low oil pressure at tickover we mentioned? Well, new S&F CSP dropped the engine and fitted new pushrod tubes plus a new seal on the rear of the engine and the sump plate, along with a resealed oil pressure switch and fuel pump pedestal, all of which appear to have cured both the leak and low oil pressure.

This work has left the Beetle driving starting, running and well (“it’s really nippy” as the owner put it, adding “and charming”), something we can confirm having subjected it to our usual thorough test drive. The whole thing drives very well, but we have to single out the gearbox as being especially good; not usually known for slick shifting, this one is a delight. It also sounds distinctly fruity, as you hear on the video!

The engine bay is another of the car’s (many) highlights, being as clean and neatly presented as any we can remember, bringing to mind the sort of obsessively clean engines you see in restored classic wooden river boats. Not the most aesthetically pleasing of engines usually, this one is a real charmer and even the air-ducting is bright and shiny.

Even the underneath of the Beetle is clean and straight and tidy. Featuring new bushes and other bits and bobs, it is nice to see an underside that hasn’t been plastered with underseal to hide all manner of naughtiness.

The Beetle’s MOT certificate expires in September 2020, and the online MOT history shows nothing of concern whatsoever. It also comes with a number of expired MOT certificates plus some invoices and bills to confirm the recent work that has been done to it.

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing where you will find photos of this and other paperwork to support our claim that this car has been maintained in recent years to the very highest standard.

If you’d like to inspect the car prior to placing a bid – something we would encourage – then please contact the owner to arrange an appointment.

There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of old Beetles still giving faithful service to their adoring owners across the world, and there are probably tens of thousands of them for sale at any one time - and some of them are very nice indeed.

And then there are examples like this. Beautifully painted and fitted with one of the nicest interiors we have seen for a very long time, it has also been carefully upgraded and improved mechanically to help it better cope with the rigours of today’s congested roads.

As such, it would make the perfect daily driver for the Beetle enthusiast, yet is in good enough condition to win more than its fair share of prizes at your local car show – and only modest fettling would be necessary to raise its condition to national car show standard. Makes you think, eh?

And, despite its condition, none of its many attributes will be reflected in a huge price tag, either. While you and I appreciate the work that has gone into it, the market only values it at somewhere between £9,000 and £12,000. That’s a ridiculously small sum for a car that makes you smile every single time you use it.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this car can be seen here at The Market HQ in Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.

If needed, please remember we have a network of trusted suppliers we work with regularly and can recommend: Classic & Sportscar Finance for purchase-financing, Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car, AnyVan for transporting it, and Footman James for classic car insurance.

BORING, but IMPORTANT: Please note that whilst we at The Market always aim to offer the most descriptive and transparent auction listings of any auction, we cannot claim they are perfect analyses of any of the vehicles we have for sale. While we use our trade experience to assess every car that comes through our hands (and between us we have bought hundreds of classic cars over the years for our personal use…) we are fallible, and our assessment of a car may contrast with that you might form yourself.

This is why we offer a far greater opportunity for bidders to view, or arrange a professional inspection on their behalf of, each vehicle prior to bidding than any traditional car auction, and we will never stop encouraging bidders to take advantage of this by coming to see it in person.

That said, we do take a good look at the vehicles delivered to our premises for sale, but this only results in our unbiased personal observations, not those of a qualified inspector or other professional, or those formed as a result of a long test drive.

Additionally, please note that most of the videos on our site have been recorded using simple cameras which often result in 'average' sound quality; in particular, engines and exhausts notes can sound a little different to how they are in reality.