Petrolheads: A passion for vintage Beetles
Brent Mewett came to Whanganui from Wellington in 2003, and a motivating factor behind the move was finding a workshop with the space to house his collection of vintage Volkswagen Beetles, writes Mike Tweed.
Now Brent Mewett’s collection is pride of place in Whanganui East, along with a couple of customers’ cars that he works on from time to time.
“I had my cars scattered all around Wellington, but here I could have them in one place,” Mewett said.
“Since then, all the cars have changed. I think I only have one left from 2003, and it’s a car I’ve owned for 30 years. It just sits here now, and never gets used.”
Mewett’s latest purchase is a pristine, metallic maroon 1954 Type 1 Volkswagen Saloon, which was made in New Zealand as a knockdown kit that had been brought in from Germany.
“As far as I’m aware, it’s the only one of it’s kind in that colour left in the world,” Mewett said.
“In 1954 they were built in the Jowett Factory [in Otahuhu], and that’s why it’s painted that colour. That’s a Jowett colour.
“Then in 1955 the Jowett Factory became known as VW Motors, and they did their own thing and kicked the Jowetts out, basically.
“It’s a keeper, that’s for sure. The original owner bought it in 1954 and he kept it through to 1997. It’s been through four owners since then, but they’ve all been VW enthusiasts.
It’s been driven and then put away in a corner, then driven a couple of miles and put away again.
“It’s done 104,000 miles, and my 1957 Beetle has only done 80,000 miles.
Mewett said a reason he dealt exclusively with VW Beetles was that they were “simple to work on”.
“The people who own them are all nice people as well, there’s no pretentiousness or anything like that.
“You’ve got lawyers and solicitors, down-and-outs, all walks of life own them. The only thing a lot of us have in common is the car, and it works out really well.
“There are quite a number of us here in Whanganui, and there’s a little club with 20-odd members as well. VWs tend to be Sunday driver cars now, as opposed to daily drivers.”
His interest in collecting Volkswagens began “seriously” in 1984, Mewett said, and that also included collecting toy and model versions as well.
“In 1995 a VW dealer in Wellington came up for sale and on the spur of the moment I bought it.
“VWs began to disappear in Wellington, so I looked for somewhere else to go. I came up here and I do my own thing, and I have a couple of customers’ cars which I work on as well.
“I do it when I want to do it, really. I don’t like being put under pressure. I’m trying to be retired, but it doesn’t really work that way.”
Mewett said he had owned hundreds of Beetles over the years, and that he only worked on aircooled VWs, which stopped being produced “around 1990”.
“I remember the days when people used to ring me up and ask if I bought old Volkswagens. I’d say ‘yep, if you can get it here I’ll give you $100’. It would cost you that just to buy one wheel for them now.
“They’ve really gone up in price, it’s crazy. The old Kombis, for example, no one wanted those. I used to buy them for next to nothing, cut the back end out for a beach buggy, and use the rest as a shed.
“Once when my wife went back to Africa to visit family, she came back to discover that I’d bought four more Kombis while she was away.”
Despite the age of the cars,
Mewett said it was still relatively easy to order parts for them.
“Some of the parts are still getting made in Germany. In America, they are really into these cars, so they make every single part from there too.”
It’s the only one of it’s kind in that colour left in
the world.