VWs bought using the USA Tourist Scheme

[John Moxon]

I'm posting this here, although I have a 1958 KG because there were a lot more Beetles bought using this scheme in the 1950s and '60s so more likely to get the info I need.

I know what the scheme was and why it came about...order your VW from your local dealer and collect in Germany, drive it around on a vacation, take it back to where it came from. The new owner flew home and the VW was shipped into the US to the owner as a used car, thus avoiding the import restriction on new cars. It was a pretty obvious trick but the US seemed to let VW get away with it for a number of years.

I spoke to Betty the original owner on the phone over the 17 years I've owned her KG, "Betty's Baby". Of course she remembered going to Germany to pick up her "Baby" and having a couple of weeks driving her in Germany and France but she didn't remember where she collected her car or where she returned it.

My questions are:
When collecting her KG, did she collect it from the factory at Osnabruck or VW dealer near her port of entry?
Did she have to return it to the same location? These questions would apply to other models...Beetle, Bus, KG and other models into the 1960s

Unfortunately Betty passed away in 2023 at the ripe old age of 97 so I can no longer question her like I used to. Is the information important? No not really but there's a magazine article in the making and although little details they will help flesh out the story.

So if any of you have got some official documentation on the logistics of the scheme I'd love to hear it.

The plate used for the vacation...

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[finster]

isn't the 'hauptzollamt stuttgart west' stamp a clue? the number 226 also refers to the issuing office but I haven't found a list of codes.
if the car was collected from karmann it would surely have had an 'osnabruck' plate like this

according to the brochures you could collect the car from the factory or one of the vw dealerships in europe.

would the birth cert have any info of where it was delivered?

ps - this is a quote from a post by you in 2009
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3613814&sid=fb1454a6eab835ef611f9714a819a9de

I know this because the birth certificate tells me, as did the lady owner who collected it from Frankfurt Airport in the April of that year, at the outset of her month vacation.
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"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

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[John Moxon]

[runamoc]

Can't say how it was then but I bought a 1984 Scirocco with the "Buy and Fly' program in 1984. Did all of the purchase here in the US, even finance. Had a choice of dealers where to 'pick' it up. Selected Frankfurt. Did even more paperwork there and bought 1 months car insurance. The oval tag installed was called a 'diplomat' plate. Rode thru a road block...the cops didn't even wave the round sign thing on a stick at me or nothing. It obviously meant something different. Went to the factory at Osnabruck but it was closed due to a nation wide sheet metal workers strike. I have the 'birth certificate' with my name on it

I got a free round trip ticket plane from NY to Frankfurt on Lufthansa to pick it up, free 'shipping' of the car to Dover, DL. I drove that car in 10 different countries. In 1985 drag raced it at the VW Dixie Nationals in Suffolk, VA and won the Trophy Division.

I have never had more fun or adventures with one car before or since.

Sorry, this post triggered me down memory lane
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[John Moxon]

[John Moxon]

[finster]

I'm guessing that you're an older gent, like myself, in which case I advise writing things down rather than trusting to memory.
otherwise see you back here in 2039...

I am still wondering if tourist delivery buyers had to drop the car off at a selected port, at a pre-arranged day/time, or to a dealer nearby? I'm guessing the people would be flying back to the states and so that would mean finding transport from the port to the airport which might be some distance away...
_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[runamoc]

[John Moxon]

[iowegian]

My U.S. spec "Tourist Delivery" Beetle was picked up at the factory in Wolfsburg,
driven to Athens and then sold some months later to the folks that I ultimately bought it from.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=2341875
She drove it back to Germany and shipped the car to Jacksonville about 3 years later. So it was marked as "Tourist", but did not involve the air-fare element.
In this case the original buyer and the second owners were U.S. citizens however that might figure into the equation.

[runamoc]

[h~moto]

[finster]

[finster]

looks like there was no expiry date...

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=902833005357916

_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[zerotofifty]

You first photo appears to be in sanfransisco

my 58 ghia was bough in about 1960 by a guy who sold it to me in the 90s, he was a german hitler youth in the war came here afterwards and worked as a machinist.

[John Moxon]

[Helfen]

In 1968 I bought an odd-looking VW from my local dealer. It turned out to be a 1965 1200"A" Custom. A week after I bought it a frantic driver in a new 68 beetle flagged me down. Explained, He ordered the car from the dealer I bought it from and picked it up at the Wolfsburg factory, drove it around Germany for a couple of weeks had its first service done at a dealer in Munich, kept touring for a bit in Switzerland and drove it back to Wolfsburg a month later. The factory did the next service (3000) and along with other factory fresh cars railcar to the port of Hamburg and shipped in one of VW's factory owned ships. He picked it up in Los Angeles at the VW distribution center on terminal island after it went through customs. I still have it today;
http://www.pismoderelicts.com/photogallery/new%20format%20834/images/img_0137_edited_1.jpg

[Eric&Barb]

Lots more Tourist Delivery literature here:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/touristdelivery.php
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