It is many people’s dream, to purchase an abandoned property, open the doors, and inside find a treasure trove of something valuable. While most of us will never have the chance, inherited properties do not usually come with these secrets and purchasing an abandoned property is not as easy as it sounds, a man in Brazil managed to make this particular dream come true when he found three iconic cars in pristine condition.
First let us go back to the beginning. The abandoned property in question is a Volkswagen dealership in Estrela, Brazil which closed down in 2002, leaving some of its inventory behind. It was owned by Otmar Essig, the owner of Comercial Gaúcha, who also left some of his personal effects inside. Since then, no one seems to have gone inside, and now, more than 20 years later, it was reopened to the amazement of collectors and car enthusiasts.
To know why the inventory inside is more valuable, we need to go even further back, all the way to 1996, when the president of Brazil managed to convince Volkswagen to resume production of their iconic model (the Beatle) thanks to the introduction of some tax benefits. Because of this agreement, the Itamar Gold Series, which became a highly sought-after model was born. It was a short lived series and collectors salivate over the few remaining vehicles of which Essig had two inside of the closed dealership.
The pristine condition Volkswagens found in Brazil
The cars that Essig had inside of his dealership belonged to the 1986 “Last Series Beetle”, which, as collectors know, is one of the limited series that Volkswagen produced, with only 850 vehicles produced, which makes these unused cars even more valuable, since the clock registered 0 miles.
The cars were in such pristine condition that they still had attached the factory stickers, making them not just rare, but one of a kind and museum worthy. A report from Razão Automóvel confirms the state of the cars and allows collectors to marvel at the unprecedented situation “they still had the plastics on the seats and the wax on the bodywork to protect the paintwork before delivery to the customer. Not even the factory stickers were missing.”
Since the cars were sealed in a room with welded doors and protected from sunlight, even the paint was the exact same color as when they were released form the factory all those years ago.
The report continued detailing the inventory that had been found, all of it in almost mint condition “In addition to these three models” writes the report, “there was also a 1996 Volkswagen Santana Quantum 2.0 Evidence van (22 km on the clock) and an original 1975 Volkswagen SP2 with just over 8,000 km covered. The latter does not have its original colour, which was a dark brown, but a silver grey, which Mr. Otmar Essig liked better.”
There is an additional car in the garage, not part of the original collection, which is Essig’s personal vehicle, a Volkswagen Kombi. While the car itself is not as remarkable as some of the other inventory, it does close the chapter, as it is the car Mr. Essig used to return to the dealership in 2022 before his death.
And with him, this legacy comes to an end and transforms, as after his passing the family and heirs decided to sell the vehicles and the rest of the estate. To ensure that they get their worth and the vehicles are appreciated for what they are, they are now on display at the FuelTech space in Porto Alegre, open to the public to be visited by enthusiasts. They will not be there long, as their new owner, a Brazilian living in the United States will need to figure out what to do with them after they are shipped to their new home.