The gang of Fridolin counterfeiters - Or: crime doesn't pay
03/30/2023
Particularly rare, sought-after and, above all, expensive versions of classic cars are repeatedly the subject of more or less well-made forgeries. Mercedes rear-fin coupés that have subsequently been cut open to form a convertible or more surviving Porsche Carrera RSs than have ever been built in Zuffenhausen speak for themselves. However, four-wheeled securities have also recently been produced by highly official sources when the stock of originals is no longer able to meet demand, as Aston Martin recently demonstrated with the DB5.
I have another candidate for a legal or illegal replica: the VW Fridolin. Don't you believe it? I couldn't believe it at first either. But after I initially assessed my own fleet in the recently published 2023 edition of the special price issue of Oldtimer Markt and realized that its value has been happily stagnating for years, I almost hit my knee with my jaw as I aimlessly leafed through the pages. Because Classic Data quotes 81,000 euros for the quirky sliding-door truck with the funny nickname - in condition two. Perfect examples are listed at a crazy 120,000 euros.
Well, that's only half the price of the Hebmüller convertible and 23-window bus. But in view of the fact that the officially named Type 147 mail truck was still available for four-digit euro sums a few years ago, one wonders why rows of air-cooled run-of-the-mill VWs have not been slaughtered in the backyards of this world for a long time in order to assemble them into Fridolins at a high yield. Perhaps because four different organ donors - Beetle, Karmann-Ghia, Transporter and Type 3 - are needed to produce a single Type 147. That doesn't look like easy money.
However, it is also rather unlikely that VW will get the old Fridolin pressing tools out of the attic again. After all, the Type 147 made neither racing nor film history. The gang of Fridolin counterfeiters will probably remain small.
