TheSamba.com :: View topic

Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:53 am

I have a bunch of those "What year is it?" VW USA dealership brochures in my literature collection. These brochures chronicle the subtle differences between each year of VW Beetle and how to tell each one apart. I tried to search for a thread about these, but nothing seemed to turn up.

As far as I can tell, the first one was issued was the 1964 edition. Any earlier ones? Anyone know when the last W.Y.I.T. brochure was produced? I'm imagining that 1979 should have been the last one since that was the last year for the German made VW Beetle (Convertible) and the last year of sales in the USA.

Can anyone out there shed light on these or confirm the year span of these brochures?

Bill

Thu Mar 31, 2016 9:06 am

I don't know the year span but the oldest one on the site in the Beetle Literature section is 1964 and the newest one is 1978.

Thu Mar 31, 2016 11:10 am

I'll chime in on the earliest one... I also believe that 1964 was the first year for these. I've owned a number of the 1964 edition and later ones as well but have never come across anything older.

Thu Mar 31, 2016 12:17 pm

Japanese 1978 version pictured below.
Same format but oldest models first.

Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:19 pm

That makes sense, and if correct (1964-1978) then I'm only missing two of them in my literature collection. Weird fetish, huh?

Bummer, I have none of the Japanese ones! Don't get me started!

Bill

Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:05 pm

I picked up one of those at the 1967 Auto Show at the Coliseum in NYC when I was 14. I must have looked at that pamphlet dozens of times. Little did I know I would end up with a Beetle 35 years later!

Wed Apr 06, 2016 11:43 pm

BulliBill wrote: That makes sense, and if correct (1964-1978) then I'm only missing two of them in my literature collection. Weird fetish, huh?

Bill
Actually it's not that weird. I was VW crazy as a kid, and I got a hold of one of those, and I used to confound the teachers at my elementary school by knowing what year their VW was. Kids could have won bets off of me.

Funny, but all these years later and nothing has changed.

Sun Jul 01, 2018 9:17 am

So it seems like the 1978 "What year is it?" brochure may have been the last in the series? Anyone ever seen a 1979 brochure?

Bill

Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:37 pm

As an update: I'm delighted that I finally picked up the last two "What year is it?" brochures that I was missing recently, so I have one of each year from 1964 through 1978.

Now maybe I can move on to one of my other odd VW fetishes, collecting all of those "Small World" magazines... Is there a topic about those babies? I know that Everett has photos of most of them in the Archives section... Thanks Everett for all you do for all of us!

Bill Bowman

Tue Jul 31, 2018 7:03 pm

79SuperVert wrote: I picked up one of those at the 1967 Auto Show at the Coliseum in NYC when I was 14. I must have looked at that pamphlet dozens of times. Little did I know I would end up with a Beetle 35 years later!

I was at that same show, at the NY Coliseum - still have the show program too - is fulla' great stories and ads of the then current 1967 cars, VW included.

As far as What Year is it? brochures are concerned - have a few AND have a What Year Porsche is it?