`Lookers'

By definition, a 'looker' will have a very smart external appearance, and some might appear to have an almost perfect finish both outside and in. Irrespective of the sumptuousness and quality of the interior and the deepness of the gloss of the paintwork, such cars can in fact be heavily bodged examples of basically rotten bodyshells. Because the cars look so good, the asking price, and therefore the stakes, are high. Try to ignore the flash and get down to the basics – give the car the most thorough bodywork and mechanical examination.Check that beautiful bodywork with a magnet to discover whether it is steel or GRP and body filler! There is nothing wrong with the use of body filler, but if the magnet shows no attraction whatever to a panel thenthis tells you that the thickness of the filler is so great that the car has been bodged and the filler is likely to drop out at some time in the future because so great a thickness cannot flex with the panel.
The price asked for a looker which has a lot of expensive accessories will sometimes reflect the costs of those accessories, but there is generally no need to pay anything like such a high price. Apart from the very finest exceptions, the values realised by any non­standard Beetles rarely exceed and sometimes fall far below the value of a standard car in similar condition.
There is always a wide selection of custom Beetles offered for sale in the UK, and so there is no artificial pressure for you to hurry when making a buying decision.