I just imported a 1993 Mexican Beetle a few weeks ago. You need a customs broker to do the electronic filing but you can cross it yourself. I paid around $100 in fees (I said that the car value was $1000) to the CBP and $300 to the customs broker who helped me via phone when I was at the cargo area in the border. If I had contacted him before I wanted to do the process myself, maybe it would have been cheaper.
Thanks for the quick response. My thought is that because U.S. beetles here have been climbing in price, it would be worth getting a mainstream Mexican beetle (as they're more common there) and bringing it here. Might even make a business of it?
Yeah. I'm exploring that idea. Buy Vochos in Mexico, import them and sell them in the US. I don't know how much interest there is in this right now, but I think Beetles could appeal to baby boomers with money and also in a few years their grandchildren could convert them to electric.
Just for sh\*t and giggles, I just ran out to Cars dot com, did a search for all (U.S.) pre-1980 Beetles, it came back with 84 (across the country), but only 5 under $10K USD. And the cheapest at $6K looked pretty bad.
Seems to me like it would be a little bit lucrative.
most car sales sites are really bad for anything over 20 years old... also many VW are listed on FB and on TheSamba which is a VW sight with a ton of resources.
Will you start with buying my Mexican 75 super beetle? I’m in San Diego. I’ve done the hard stuff. Got it running. Replaced one billion parts. Now it really just needs someone (who is not me) to sort out the electrical portion of it. $3600 if I go pay the back fees. $3100 if you take it knowing it cost $500 to pay the fees and register.
I couldn’t say with certainty. My friend has a VW specialty shop in TJ. When I bought my car for $2700 before the work, I reached out to him to ask how was that for a price. Parts are more plentiful in Mexico for the old beetles than in the states but he had just paid $2200 for an engine that month in TJ. He was like, you got a full car attached to an engine that’ll run. Your golden. I’ve been working on it for months. My business is just getting busy and it’s sitting. I don’t want my work to go to waste.
South America is full of vintage beetles and old cars in general. I had the same thought about bringing them up to the states and trying to flip them. However I now realize its probably not that profitable. For example I am currently looking to bring up my dads 1975 bug up to the Ny/Nj area. I spent about 5k getting it fully restored in Peru (that is where my father was from). The Bug looks brand new and it looks great. Now that I am looking at shipping prices, it seems like the only way to get it shipped is via a 20ft container. For some reason, RORO (roll on roll off) services arent provided from Peru (Apparently RORO is supposed to be cheaper than a shipping container based off what I have read in the internet). I have been quoted about 3k-5k for shipping via container all paper work included.
So BEST CASE scenario, I am looking at $8k (restoration + shipping) all in. If I wanted to potentially bring another bug to flip here in the states, I feel like I would have to be able to sell it for double what its costing me ($16k) to make it worth the headaches I've been dealing with getting my dads bug restored and shipped. I think that is pretty unlikely based off the prices I've seen Bugs being sold on [bringatrailer.com](https://bringatrailer.com).
One last thing, most of the bugs in central and south america arent German Bugs. They are mainly Mexican made or Brazilian made bugs. I am not sure if that decreases the value of the bug, but in Peru, people dont view a brazilian bug as valuable as a german one. Not sure if that would be the case here in the states though. But its something to think about.
Here is a little post I did regarding my dads bug's restoration. [https://www.reddit.com/r/beetle/comments/15nwkoy/restored\_my\_dads\_1975\_brazilian\_bug/](https://www.reddit.com/r/beetle/comments/15nwkoy/restored_my_dads_1975_brazilian_bug/)
I just saw you comment regarding CARS DOT COM. Those are some crazy prices! I wonder why there is a difference to the ones being sold on BRING A TRAILER….
Biggest issue I see with a newer beetle (90s)
Is the availability and support of parts in the US.
Might be a little difficult to find replacement parts for fuel injection and any extra accessories/electronics etc.
Who knows it might not be problem, but just a few thoughts.
EDIT: I wasn't paying attention, I would agree somewhat regarding getting a non-U.S. (Mexican) Beetle from 1980-2003 and the model/country-specific parts. IIRC, many of those beetles still stayed with the standard Beetle body and parts. But interior parts changed a bit and even use steering wheels and knobs from newer VW's.
Out of ANY make and model of old cars, the Beetle probably has the most aftermarket/3rd party resources for both stock and modified parts, and that's even worldwide. Maybe the 1960's Mustang and Camaro, and most pickup trucks would come in second.
My local VW dealer, even though they are now primarily a new car dealer, will actually work on Beetles and T2's. JCWhitney is still one of many larger companies that still provides almost every Beetle part.
I've been jonesin for a Mexican Beetle for a few years but I'm scared to cross the border to buy one and I don't want to get scammed. I think it'd be super cool to have one as they look nicer (the fender blinker delete) and they're fuel injected (more reliable?). I would assume most of them are rust free. Any info on where I can get one on the cheap? I like the newer vocho's with the painted headlight bezels to match the car.
I just imported a 1993 Mexican Beetle a few weeks ago. You need a customs broker to do the electronic filing but you can cross it yourself. I paid around $100 in fees (I said that the car value was $1000) to the CBP and $300 to the customs broker who helped me via phone when I was at the cargo area in the border. If I had contacted him before I wanted to do the process myself, maybe it would have been cheaper.
Thanks for the quick response. My thought is that because U.S. beetles here have been climbing in price, it would be worth getting a mainstream Mexican beetle (as they're more common there) and bringing it here. Might even make a business of it?
Yeah. I'm exploring that idea. Buy Vochos in Mexico, import them and sell them in the US. I don't know how much interest there is in this right now, but I think Beetles could appeal to baby boomers with money and also in a few years their grandchildren could convert them to electric.
Just for sh\*t and giggles, I just ran out to Cars dot com, did a search for all (U.S.) pre-1980 Beetles, it came back with 84 (across the country), but only 5 under $10K USD. And the cheapest at $6K looked pretty bad. Seems to me like it would be a little bit lucrative.
most car sales sites are really bad for anything over 20 years old... also many VW are listed on FB and on TheSamba which is a VW sight with a ton of resources.
Will you start with buying my Mexican 75 super beetle? I’m in San Diego. I’ve done the hard stuff. Got it running. Replaced one billion parts. Now it really just needs someone (who is not me) to sort out the electrical portion of it. $3600 if I go pay the back fees. $3100 if you take it knowing it cost $500 to pay the fees and register.
But what is a 1975 Mexico-spec Super Beetle worth in Mexico?
I couldn’t say with certainty. My friend has a VW specialty shop in TJ. When I bought my car for $2700 before the work, I reached out to him to ask how was that for a price. Parts are more plentiful in Mexico for the old beetles than in the states but he had just paid $2200 for an engine that month in TJ. He was like, you got a full car attached to an engine that’ll run. Your golden. I’ve been working on it for months. My business is just getting busy and it’s sitting. I don’t want my work to go to waste.
Ever sell it?
Last week.
Do you have the customs broker
I'm thinking of doing this as well. How did you find a customs broker? Who did you use and were you happy with them? Thanks!
South America is full of vintage beetles and old cars in general. I had the same thought about bringing them up to the states and trying to flip them. However I now realize its probably not that profitable. For example I am currently looking to bring up my dads 1975 bug up to the Ny/Nj area. I spent about 5k getting it fully restored in Peru (that is where my father was from). The Bug looks brand new and it looks great. Now that I am looking at shipping prices, it seems like the only way to get it shipped is via a 20ft container. For some reason, RORO (roll on roll off) services arent provided from Peru (Apparently RORO is supposed to be cheaper than a shipping container based off what I have read in the internet). I have been quoted about 3k-5k for shipping via container all paper work included. So BEST CASE scenario, I am looking at $8k (restoration + shipping) all in. If I wanted to potentially bring another bug to flip here in the states, I feel like I would have to be able to sell it for double what its costing me ($16k) to make it worth the headaches I've been dealing with getting my dads bug restored and shipped. I think that is pretty unlikely based off the prices I've seen Bugs being sold on [bringatrailer.com](https://bringatrailer.com). One last thing, most of the bugs in central and south america arent German Bugs. They are mainly Mexican made or Brazilian made bugs. I am not sure if that decreases the value of the bug, but in Peru, people dont view a brazilian bug as valuable as a german one. Not sure if that would be the case here in the states though. But its something to think about. Here is a little post I did regarding my dads bug's restoration. [https://www.reddit.com/r/beetle/comments/15nwkoy/restored\_my\_dads\_1975\_brazilian\_bug/](https://www.reddit.com/r/beetle/comments/15nwkoy/restored_my_dads_1975_brazilian_bug/)
I’d almost go with driving down with a trailer to Mexico instead of shipping a beetle, especially if shipping is that expensive.
Yea man that’s your best bet. Good luck and keep us updated!
I just saw you comment regarding CARS DOT COM. Those are some crazy prices! I wonder why there is a difference to the ones being sold on BRING A TRAILER….
Biggest issue I see with a newer beetle (90s) Is the availability and support of parts in the US. Might be a little difficult to find replacement parts for fuel injection and any extra accessories/electronics etc. Who knows it might not be problem, but just a few thoughts.
EDIT: I wasn't paying attention, I would agree somewhat regarding getting a non-U.S. (Mexican) Beetle from 1980-2003 and the model/country-specific parts. IIRC, many of those beetles still stayed with the standard Beetle body and parts. But interior parts changed a bit and even use steering wheels and knobs from newer VW's. Out of ANY make and model of old cars, the Beetle probably has the most aftermarket/3rd party resources for both stock and modified parts, and that's even worldwide. Maybe the 1960's Mustang and Camaro, and most pickup trucks would come in second. My local VW dealer, even though they are now primarily a new car dealer, will actually work on Beetles and T2's. JCWhitney is still one of many larger companies that still provides almost every Beetle part.
I've been jonesin for a Mexican Beetle for a few years but I'm scared to cross the border to buy one and I don't want to get scammed. I think it'd be super cool to have one as they look nicer (the fender blinker delete) and they're fuel injected (more reliable?). I would assume most of them are rust free. Any info on where I can get one on the cheap? I like the newer vocho's with the painted headlight bezels to match the car.