Here’s A Mexibeetle Spotter’s Guide For You

I just got back from Los Angeles, where I was for the Slate launch event, and then stayed couple extra days to shoot some videos with David that you’ll be seeing pretty soon. Because we’re all about maximizing your membership (and ad) dollars, I forewent a decadent, plush hotel, with their opulent beds and human-grade towels, and instead stayed in a little sort of guest house/storage building behind David’s place, a place with neither a bed nor heat. I thought it would be just fine, because I think my capacity to understand what conditions I think are just fine are stunted from when I was around 22 or so.

It wasn’t exactly fine.

It was cold – so very cold! Unusual for LA, sure, but not unheard of. Cold and rainy, and a sleeping bag on a floor, even a rubber-padded one, all add up for a pretty miserable night. Why do I do this to myself?

Early in the morning it got bad enough that I got up, achey and shivering, and got into the CrossCab, which offered heat and a heated seat, the warmth from which I drank in, hungrily. I drove around a bit, getting warm, enjoying the luxuriant padding of the seat, when I came across something exciting parked on the side of the rainy road: a Mexibeetle!

By “Mexibeetle” I mean a Volkswagen Beetle built in Mexico. These Beetles were built from 1967 all the way until 2003, and while Beetles were no longer brought to America after 1978 or 1979 (though you could get convertibles as late as 1980) Mexico kept cranking them out, and kept making subtle changes and developments.

In LA, you occasionally see a Mexibeetle, usually later ones from the mid-1990s and up; there were importers in the late 1990s that would take Mexican Beetles and transplant everything to a vintage Beetle chassis, keeping the old VIN and maintaining some legality, though after 2000 or so authorities cracked down on the practice.

Still, you see these around every so often, and I noticed this one right away. I think most people just see a murdered-out-looking Beetle in those pics, but if you’d like to see the visual tells that you’re looking at a Mexibeetle, I’m happy to show you.

So, how did I know this was a Mexibeetle? First, there’s the general de-chromed, de-trimmed look: these later Beetles got rid of all chrome trim, and have a more modern-ish look as a result.

The front turn indicators have migrated into the bumper (normally lenses were ribbed and amber; these clear lenses you see here are aftermarket or custom) and that bumper bar itself is different than either the ’68 and up “Europa” bumpers or the big ’74-’80 US-spec 5 mph battering ram bumpers.

The Mexican bumpers have a taller center recessed section, and use different brackets with just one bolt per side instead of two, and differently-shaped rubber grommets in the fenders.

The bumpers (and headlight trim rings) are body-colored on mid ’90s and up Mexican Beetles, as you see on this black one, and this red one from a brochure:

Moving rearwards, we also have this little detail:

That’s a round little lock, which uses a key like what, say, a vending machine lock uses, and I believe this is used to arm the car’s alarm system and immobilizer. I think, at least, I’ve not actually ever seen this in use.

Another big Mexibeetle tell is the lack of the rust-trap rear cabin air-extraction vents. These were part of the flow-through ventilation system introduced in 1971, but mostly trapped water and rusted out. They look like little parentheses, as you can see behind the rear side windows of my ’73:

The Mexibeetle loses the vents, but keeps the )-shaped crease in the bodywork. Let’s keep going to the rear:

We have a similar Mexico-only rear bumper with a taller center strip and a single bolt per side, and we also have Mexico’s unique single-exhaust setup, on the opposite side of the ’75-’80 US-market fuel injected engine single exhaust setup.

The Mexican muffler and exhaust is also tied to a fuel injected engine (a Digifant setup) and has a catalytic converter in there somewhere.

Also notable are the taillights, the big “elephant’s foot” design that came to the US since 1973, but are subtly different:

US-spec elephant’s foot lights had four chambers, with the middle red chamber incorporating a separate brake lamp and tail lamp with a reflector. The Mexican (and global market) version of the light only has 3 chambers, with the red middle section being undivided and having a shared bulb for brake/tail. The reflector is also a wide strip instead of a square.

I always liked seeing Mexibeetles around LA; they were interesting in seeing how a 1938 design was attempted to make seem more modern, and I was always surprised at how well these subtle changes worked to make it feel a bit more modern. A bit. It’s still a Beetle, after all, even if a bit more monochrome and sleek.

Anyway, now if you see one, you’ll know what you’re looking at!