Beetle vs Super Beetle

Oh Oh. The gauntlet has been thrown down! LOL

US Supers were from '71 thru '79. ('71/72 were flat screen, later were curved screen.)

Std Beetles never had a curved screen like the Supers. Std's were built thru '77.

Purists consider the Super an interloper, even a perversion of the original intent. But Super owners like the handling characteristics better.

This site has a great deal of info on the Supers:

This site has a lot of the "old" history, if interested:

Umm.. much later, all the way to the end I believe (2003) just not imported to USA (legally).

I used to do regular maintenance on a 1996 1200 std beetle.

The Supers, when NEW or suspension properly taken care of and rebuilt, handles much much better. They have better steering too.

But as always, lack of maintenance makes things fall apart and the car runs like crap. The "super Beetle Shimmies" is one example... the "wobble of death" as it is also called. Standards do not suffer from it.

Jan

Ummmmm OP asked about the *US* market.

Should have said SOLD instead of Built then :)

Jan

I like both for different reasons. The supers handle better in cross winds but are harder to tune for the road as I have found even tire pressures side to side in the rear can change the feel of the front and of course the 47mph shimmies. Dennis

The Toyotas I had from the 70's also had the shimmies, and they also had McPherson Struts like the Super Beetle. Dr. Porche built better than he knew.

Charles of Schaumburg

I drove a super for 4 years and kept it maintained. The handling was great. I even drove several times from Orlando to Atlanta and back several times, 7 hours each way. I was able to keep the car above 80mph the whole trip.

The whole trip??

That was some large full tank!

Or am I telling my age! lol

later, dave (One out of many daves)

Okay, let me rephrase that:

That's some big bladder! ;)

ROFL When Nature calls! ;-)

The 1302 and 1303 Super Beetles had MacPherson strut suspension and IRS at the rear. Two improvements over the standard car. Therefore they handle much better! Get a '75 model 1303 and you also get a steering rack, which is also a vast improvement. With a 1600 they make great daily drivers.

-- Howard Rose

For the US market, all standards from '69-up had IRS.

I forgot about that! The only non-Super Beetle to get IRS here was the semi-auto.

-- Howard Rose

Not exactly the whole way. I did stop for a sandwich and refill.

I have a perhaps esoteric taste for torsion bars. Coils pack a whole bunch of resonance in their windings. Every bump is an event. Torsion bars, on the other hand, are just a simple easily-damped twist. In heavy or bumpy cornering, I prefer the torsion bar front suspension. Colin

Since no one else did, it's up to me I guess. ;)

The super beetle "is better" but it's also called the "stupid beetle" for a reason.

It doesn't take much wear, abuse etc to remove all the "is better" part and replace it with "stupid acting". Those that like the dangged things and take care of them, do great with them tho. :)

YMMV

They can also have my share of them too. ;)

For sure. :)

And something crazy I did was filled my spare tire full of water and then re-adjusted the toe-in, front and back. Don't know if that made it handle as good as a perfect condition stupid beetle but it sure as heck made it handle better than it did without the extra weight.

Believe it? :)

My '67 bug looked like junk but underneath it was in top working condition. And it was always there waiting on me... no one ever bothered to steal the old "Junk Heap". :)

I gave it to my youngest son and he trashed in 6 months and went through 3 engines in that time too.