Swedish Beetles sell strong

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A Swedish museum dedicated to the VW Beetle and some of its derivatives, the Pålsboda VW museum, closed its doors recently and all of its cars (and there were quote a few!) were hammered off last week in an online auction. Highest expectations went to the one that is believed to be Sweden’s oldest remaining VW (main picture). It was manufactured in December 1948 and one of 55 imported to Sweden in the Spring of 1949. It made 1,350,000 Swedish crowns at the auction; just over 131,000 euros or 152,000 dollars, when it was bought by a Swedish collector.

Several others went abroad, though: “Between a quarter and a third of the cars”, said Michael Luft of Bilweb Auctions, who carried out the sale, adding: “A Dutchman bought twelve cars and a German four. The museum's VW 411 went to Chile!”

There were more early cars. A renovated 1949 Beetle made half a million crowns while several examples of the 1950's went over the 300,000 crowns-mark. Remarkably, the other end of the spectrum proved to have become sought-after also. A ‘Final Edition’ Mexico-built Beetle of 2003 (picture 6) with just a few miles on the clock made 1.1 million crowns. See all the results here.

(Words editor, pictures courtesy Bil Web auctions)

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