[brat001]

Originally Posted by ajay99

I stand corrected.
But there are at least 2 fastback Type3 cars in Kerala itself.
Moreover 1,339,124 German fastbacks were produced + 129,516 Brazilian fastbacks were produced, then I cannot understand how can one call it a "verry rare"' car!!!!!!!!!!!! maybe whatever cars some guys collect ,has to be labelled "RARE"" otherwise how will they make its market price soar!!!

You maybe right with the numbers Ajay,but do you know how many came into India? I own one 1600TL and there are only other 3 or 4 Fastbacks i know of in Bangalore. One belonging to imperial.S.A and the other PAVAN KADAM is restoring for one of his friend.

And FastBacks are actually rare, compared to the Variant (Squareback).there might me only handful of such cars in the country, dont look at things with selling point of view always.

Originally Posted by manishalive

You never know, I love both

Does give away lot of details, looking at your profile picture.

Do let us know about your VW search.

Originally Posted by Stanher

Thank you guruvE! BTW, let's make that as specific as possible, say '56 oval VW!

Too ambitious, eh....

[ajay99]

Originally Posted by brat001

You maybe right with the numbers Ajay,but do you know how many came into India? I own one 1600TL and there are only other 3 or 4 Fastbacks i know of in Bangalore. One belonging to imperial.S.A and the other PAVAN KADAM is restoring for one of his friend.

And FastBacks are actually rare, compared to the Variant (Squareback).there might me only handful of such cars in the country, dont look at things with selling point of view always.




Does give away lot of details, looking at your profile picture.

Do let us know about your VW search.




Too ambitious, eh....

I dont think anyone can authentically say how many VW fastbacks came to INDIA.I only contested the statement"" verry rare"" with regard to fastbacks.if it was "not so common"" or ""a handful"" I would not have bothered to comment.
All said and done I donot think Fastback is even a rarity in INDIA.
I know of at least 3 cars in DelhiNCR

[imperial.s.a]

Hi guys till my knowledge the fastback was not very popular in india thats the reason very few cars came into our country for example take goa the VW had an showroom till 1960 whole of goa the fast back is quite rear then just imagine

[harit]

Originally Posted by ajay99

I dont think anyone can authentically say how many VW fastbacks came to INDIA.I only contested the statement"" verry rare"" with regard to fastbacks.if it was "not so common"" or ""a handful"" I would not have bothered to comment.
All said and done I donot think Fastback is even a rarity in INDIA.
I know of at least 3 cars in DelhiNCR

Correct, VW Fastbacks were really not rare.

Originally Posted by imperial.s.a

Hi guys till my knowledge the fastback was not very popular in india thats the reason very few cars came into our country for example take goa the VW had an showroom till 1960 whole of goa the fast back is quite rear then just imagine

Fastback was introduced in 1961, so Goa could have got hardly any Variants in whichever version.

Actually, there are still some fastback Variant's around. Mumbai had the yellow one lying on the road, there is one for sale in UP, there was a white one with Assam origin in Delhi etc. Mumbai in the 1970's had atleast 5 of them. Basically the Variants were unloved, just a car to use and throw. Similar to Ford Cortinas. We saw hundreds of then, now all gone.
Because of import restrictions, it is difficult to say what car was popular. When a car was brought in by owners choice, maximum Mercs and Chevy's came in. Then the Chevy's became obsolete and Japanese cars came in, mainlt Toyota's, Datsun's (later Nissan) and lesser extend Hondas. All other cars came in from Companies, Airlines, Embassies and went through STC. So popularity was not a criteria, availability was.

Even the Beetle, could one really call it popular looking at the numbers which came in? In 1990 there may have been a total of around 500 Beetles imported into India in total, from 1956 odd till 1990, and that includes Goa, and the cars which were scrapped inbetween.

But never mind, lets keep on Bugging and enjoy Volkswagen products.

Cheers harit

[ajay99]

Originally Posted by harit

Correct, VW Fastbacks were really not rare.



Fastback was introduced in 1961, so Goa could have got hardly any Variants in whichever version.

Actually, there are still some fastback Variant's around. Mumbai had the yellow one lying on the road, there is one for sale in UP, there was a white one with Assam origin in Delhi etc. Mumbai in the 1970's had atleast 5 of them. Basically the Variants were unloved, just a car to use and throw. Similar to Ford Cortinas. We saw hundreds of then, now all gone.
Because of import restrictions, it is difficult to say what car was popular. When a car was brought in by owners choice, maximum Mercs and Chevy's came in. Then the Chevy's became obsolete and Japanese cars came in, mainlt Toyota's, Datsun's (later Nissan) and lesser extend Hondas. All other cars came in from Companies, Airlines, Embassies and went through STC. So popularity was not a criteria, availability was.

Even the Beetle, could one really call it popular looking at the numbers which came in? In 1990 there may have been a total of around 500 Beetles imported into India in total, from 1956 odd till 1990, and that includes Goa, and the cars which were scrapped inbetween.

But never mind, lets keep on Bugging and enjoy Volkswagen products.

Cheers harit

trivediji,I think the number of running condition aircooled beetles in the country today will be less than 300 if my info is correct.
I have attempted to take a count of the beetles in Kerala recently.
this is my finding-There are 24 beetles including 14 in running condition.
there may be more,In ALLEPPEY an LHD beetle is trapped inside a house for the last 20plus years.you have to create a road first to bring the car out.but the owner is happy in its present status

[wasif]

Here are pics of an oval that used to be around in Hyderabad. The other pic is of a Karmann Ghia that belonged to a guy from Bombay who loved cars and young girls ! Both can be seen in this pic taken when he was in Goa with teh girl buying the car. Some more interesting cars are in the pic.

Can anyone ID the car or its owner or even the girl for that matter

[kishorelal]

is the girl some model??

[SuperSelect]

Guys, can you believe this :
Tatas had almost inked a deal to get manufacturing and selling rights for Volkswagen cars (read Beetles) in India, around the year 1948-49.
And guess what, the prospective manufacturer was to be our beloved Premier Auto, in a strategic alliance with TELCO.
The late great J.R.D. Tata had actually met Ferry Porsche, son of the legendary Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, to take this deal ahead.
Oooh, we would have had Beetles all over, alongside Fiat 1100s and Ambassadors .

Somwhere along the way, the deal died.
As did the Escorts deal, to make Citroen 2CVs.

Please refer to the latest issue of "Zigwheels" magazine for this article. Unfortunately I'm unable to post a link..

[manishalive]

A total of 4 Beetle (1 scrapped, 1 gone in ground (1966), 1 (1965) Beetle without paper sold for 40 k, not for resale.

The 4th one just a km away from my house but not in my house. I believe this sums up the Beetle's in Chattisgarh state. A VW Micro Bus is also there with my old school management .

[arun1100]

Originally Posted by SuperSelect

Guys, can you believe this :
Tatas had almost inked a deal to get manufacturing and selling rights for Volkswagen cars (read Beetles) in India, around the year 1948-49.
And guess what, the prospective manufacturer was to be our beloved Premier Auto, in a strategic alliance with TELCO.

Very interesting news there!! Wish the deal had come through.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by wasif

Here are pics of an oval that used to be around in Hyderabad.
Both can be seen in this pic taken when he was in Goa with teh girl buying the car. Some more interesting cars are in the pic.

Hey wasif- I'm glad someone managed to take pics. of this yellow oval in Hyd.!!
I remember this car so much, it used to be sitting at the same spot outside a garage at Baghlingampally X roads for quite a few years, until 2002 or thereabouts!! It was cosmetically in the same state as it seems in your pics., only I saw it sadly deteriorating further and further over the years! The left headlight was eventually broken, the decklid had nearly fully come off (it looks like it was already loose in your pics., going by the way it's been tied up in place) and the whole car had become shabbier and very rusty! How I wish I had gone and atleast tried to buy it then!
At the time I didn't realise ovals are relatively rare in India. There was also a fiat 1100 (select or super-select) that was totally stripped down and primered in red-oxide that also sat junking away in front of this car (facing this car) and that too later disappeared. Then just across the road, there was an early Standard 20 van in powder blue that was also junked. Also disappeared!

We hardly see such yesteryears cars even in this state outside garages here now!

[harit]

Originally Posted by SuperSelect

Guys, can you believe this :
Tatas had almost inked a deal to get manufacturing and selling rights for Volkswagen cars (read Beetles) in India, around the year 1948-49.
...........................................
Please refer to the latest issue of "Zigwheels" magazine for this article. Unfortunately I'm unable to post a link..

I was not aware of such a proposed deal, never heard of this before, but would we really have been better off?
There are fans of the Beetle everywhere, but do not forget that even in Germany where people had a much larger choice of cars to buy, NOT everyone bought Beetles. Having said that, the availability of Beetles and other cars would have been a boon to us in India at least from the point of view of offering some competition and driving the existing car manufacturing companies to offer value for money and not take us for a ride as they have all along.

But imagine anothe scenario. If the manufacture of the Beetle had indeed been implemented in 1948/49, they would have continued with that model atleast upto 1980? India would have been flooded with the rarest Beetle, 1948/49. All because we never upgraded our models significantly. So we would have had the 1948/49 body shell upgraded with a Nano engine? The silent suffering majority in India would thank God this never came about, keeping in mind the stupid government policies put in place at that time. The minority enthusiast will be sad.

But is this true? I doubt it because in 1948/49 Ferry Porsche was not in a position to talk to Tata. It was under the British Administration after the war and they were busy reviving production and sell the cars.
Also, I have pictures of a delegation from Telco who visited Mercedes Benz in Germany and were shown the Ponton production. Now that would have made more sense. Some of my pictures appear in the book on Mercedes Benz in India which was released at the Auto Expo.

This is a different point of view, and I believe that the same would apply to the 2CV.

Cheers harit

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by harit

I was not aware of such a proposed deal, never heard of this before, but would we really have been better off?
There are fans of the Beetle everywhere, but do not forget that even in Germany where people had a much larger choice of cars to buy, NOT everyone bought Beetles. Having said that, the availability of Beetles and other cars would have been a boon to us in India at least from the point of view of offering some competition and driving the existing car manufacturing companies to offer value for money and not take us for a ride as they have all along.

But imagine anothe scenario. If the manufacture of the Beetle had indeed been implemented in 1948/49, they would have continued with that model atleast upto 1980? India would have been flooded with the rarest Beetle, 1948/49. All because we never upgraded our models significantly. So we would have had the 1948/49 body shell upgraded with a Nano engine? The silent suffering majority in India would thank God this never came about, keeping in mind the stupid government policies put in place at that time. The minority enthusiast will be sad.

But is this true? I doubt it because in 1948/49 Ferry Porsche was not in a position to talk to Tata. It was under the British Administration after the war and they were busy reviving production and sell the cars.
Also, I have pictures of a delegation from Telco who visited Mercedes Benz in Germany and were shown the Ponton production. Now that would have made more sense. Some of my pictures appear in the book on Mercedes Benz in India which was released at the Auto Expo.

This is a different point of view, and I believe that the same would apply to the 2CV.

Cheers harit

If the Beetle would have been built she would have faced the same fate as that of Vespa and lambretta. (tons of those being exported).

And in the MAG ZIGWHEELS, Adil says story comes out of the archives of Tata's and further next month will be another story of the Mercedes Indian Connection, I think that will solve the puzzle.

Bye the way , the magazine also features the Maharani Car.

Maharani Special - News - Zigwheels

[kishorelal]

Originally Posted by manishalive

A total of 4 Beetle (1 scrapped, 1 gone in ground (1966), 1 (1965) Beetle without paper sold for 40 k, not for resale.

The 4th one just a km away from my house but not in my house. I believe this sums up the Beetle's in Chattisgarh state. A VW Micro Bus is also there with my old school management .

Which year model is that?
is it a running car?

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by kishorelal

Which year model is that?
is it a running car?

Well need to revisit my home town and reconfirm the model year.