Mexican Beetles - are they prevalent in the US?

RosemaryT

In my ongoing quest for The Perfect Super Beetle™ I've already stumbled across one Mexican Beetle.

Are they common in the US? I thought it was illegal to bring them into the United States. Is that not true?

And is there any easy/fast way to distinguish a Mexican Beetle from the real deal?

Thanks for any and all info.

Rosemary

djkeev · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 11:18 am Post subject:

Mexican bugs are here but Not common, the last Beetles VW imported into the USA were 79 Convertibles.
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hopkin · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 11:43 am Post subject:

Rosemary, there a few for sale on Samba. In the US are car must be 25 years or older to be legally imported.

There were a lot of Mexican Beetles imported via a company called BeetleMex in Arizona. They built a brand new Mexican Beetle on an older chasis. Here's an article from a 1999 Hot VW's that describes the process.

These cars are for sale all over the US and for the most part are identical to their 'pure' Mexican Beetle cousins. I know of one in Florida that just sold for $4K.

There also unmodified Mexican Beetles in the US (with a 17 digit VIN), I can't speak to any difficulties you may have licensing one of these.

I have a '96, here is Canada the import limit is 15 years, so I had no difficulty bringing the car in.

Here's the article that I referred to, good luck with your search:

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

_________________
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 11:46 am Post subject:

Mexican Beetles will look like the 73 standard model but a peek at the tranny will tell you: Mexico never got the IRS, all swingaxle.
Also the bumpers are different-they have blinkers, no blinkers on top of the fenders, and at some point a barrel key for an alarm system was installed on the drivers side, opposite of where the gas door would be. Different steering wheels, dash. Also the vents behind the rear windows are not there but the impression in the body panel still is. Also no chrome body trim.
Brazilians had the square speedo, in KPH naturally.
Basically a Mexican/South American bug will pop out at you with many, many small differences.

They are cool as hell in my opinion.
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swhitcomb · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 7:49 pm Post subject:

hopkin · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 8:53 pm Post subject:

Just to be clear, the Mexican Beetles that have been referred to in this thread were built from 1993-2004. These are ones with the ECU, OBDII, Golf switches and seats, no crescent (although I think the 93's and 94's might have had that), disc brakes, electric Window Washer.

The chrome trim was dropped in '95, and re-added for the '04s.

'98 or '99 was when the alarm key switch was added.

Beetles were built in Mexico from every year from 1954-2003. The pre-'93s are much more like their German cousins except that all of the Mexican Beetles built have Swing Axles.
_________________
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

Her74buggy

GArBa · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 2:20 am Post subject:

so, since us-spec beetles came from emden rather than wolfsburg, I guess with this line of reasoning they too are mere copies of the "real deal". Cool

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swhitcomb · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 3:14 am Post subject:

hopkin · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 5:49 am Post subject:

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 7:34 am Post subject:

I'd be willing to bet it's because Germany was still making Beetles (Supers right?) until 1985, and was probably mandated to produce parts for the older ones for x years, so Mexicans of that era would share the switches, etc. Then when they didn't have to keep those parts around they switched to newer model switches.
Just a theory. See, this is why we need a Mexi-beetle forum!
_________________
1971 STD BEETLE- DD-1st car, 1st love. keepin' it stock! 1600DP, Solex 34-3 Mexi Bosch SVDA Dist NOW w/POINTS
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI

hopkin · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 7:41 am Post subject:

Sounds logical to me, both your reasoning about the parts and the forum.

One thing to note is that the radio on the later Mexican's is lower than then earlier cars. You can see in the 2 pictures above that the radio is lower. This gives more clearance behind for a newer style radio Very Happy

_________________
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

gt1953 · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 8:01 am Post subject:

Here in the southwest I have scene them here and there. Nothing wrong with them. I would have one for sure.
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Antonio Trejo · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 9:56 am Post subject:

I have a lot of loyal customers, mexican Beetle owners in The USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain and over 20 countries since 2001, and my list is growing up every month.
Last year I sold and shipped to Europe (Belgium) and United Arab Emirates (Dubai) brand new Ultima Edition Beetles. In my humble opinion, after 12 years selling genuine VW Beetle parts and complete Beetles in The Samba, the market is going up. Just my $2 (mexican) cents.
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GArBa · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 11:24 am Post subject:

hopkin · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 12:05 pm Post subject:

Volks Wagen

HRVW · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2015 1:34 pm Post subject:

The later VW bugs made in Puebla Mexico are the REAL THING as the presses that punched out fenders, hoods etc all had the German name emblazed in large letters.

On a VIP tour to the plant in the mid 1980's saw over 70 stamping presses in one bldg. I marveled in the way a flat sheet was placed into a press and out came a front hood.....one after another.

VW had shipped machinery from Germany to Mexico to use.

I am probably one of the very few non VW employees to see their production assembly line as NO public tours existed then.


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