VW Country Buggy: Our Shed

Date: 16.10.2012

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

Our shed: Look what photographer Cristian Brunelli found hiding in a shed

Our cars: VW Country Buggy

VW Country Buggy

The last Volkswagen I owned was a 1976 Kombi, which was featured in Unique Cars Issue 250. My dad had owned the Kombi from new and apart from being lowered slightly, it was completely original and in good shape. I loved driving that bus around but a move to a single-car garage forced me to sell it.

After five years I started to think about getting another Volksy. My wife Jenny and I now had some extra garage space and I wanted to continue the tradition and have my kids grow up with an air-cooled VW in the family.

But what to buy? I didn't have the budget to buy a Kombi that was as nice as my old one so I started looking for a '60s Beetle. I looked for a while but nothing really took my fancy - until the day I discovered what a Country Buggy was.

I was over at my brother's house and mentioned that I was looking for an old VW. He seemed to remember that his neighbour had some weird old VW in his garage and it had never ventured out since he had lived there. I asked my brother if the mystery car might be a Beetle.

"Nah, it's definitely not a Beetle" he said, "It's some square, door-less thing. Not sure what it is but it's got a VW badge".

I bolted next-door and knocked. The owner of the weird green thing was called Heinz and he was happy to show me the car. It was a Country Buggy. They were built in Volkswagen's Clayton factory in the late-'60s. There were only 887 produced for the Australian market and this one was number 432. The Country Buggy was ugly as hell, but I loved it!

Heinz had bought the Buggy from a Unique Cars ad that was in the April 1990 issue. The Buggy subsequently sat in his garage for the best part of 20 years until I stumbled upon it. It was in great shape for its age and still completely original.

The wheels that were on the car were from a Beetle and were poking out the guards. But not to worry as Heinz had the standard skinny 15s as well.

We did a deal and the C'Bug was mine! The family and I were very excited as we had a new addition to the clan. We were really happy that this old VW would see action once again. We rescued it from the dark, cold garage where it had sat alone for 20 years, put it on a tow truck and welcomed it to the family home. I swear the Country Buggy was smiling all the way.

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