Now that they've retired [Where's Jeff? Not at the barber, that's for sure!], and taken their last victory tour/lap of Australia, The Wiggles have put "The Big Red Car" on eBay, with all proceeds going to support SIDS and Kids. [Anthony's brother and Wiggles manager/svengali Paul Fields' daughter died of SIDS way back, and yes, now I feel terrible for ever saying anything remotely critical of their insipid money-printing, staff-shafting machine...And now that feeling has passed.]
Technically, this is not "The Big Red Car," but "This Big Red Car," a 2012 VW Beetle Cabriolet with just 292 km, being sold by Volkswagen Australia, who "have been the Big Red Car people for five years." So it's a promotional Big Red Car, tarted up with some vinyl decals and a convertible top in custom-WTF yellow, from the Wiggles' product placement sponsor. The sale happens to coincide with the relaunch in Australia of the redesigned Beetle as a 2013 model, which has been off the local market since the beginning of the year.
"This Big Red Car is a rare collector's item," we are assured. Until it no longer is:
The successful bidder will only be permitted to use the Big Red Car for domestic/personal purposes and cannot use it for any commercial purpose. Should the successful bidder wish to on-sell the vehicle the "Wiggles" logo must be removed prior to sale.The eBay AU auction is open only to pre-approved Australian citizen bidders.
I certainly hope that people will make a donation directly to a responsible charity organization so that SIDS can be eliminated soon.
Volkswagen Big Red Car Charity Auction, ends Dec. 17, currently $AU27,900 [vwbigredcar.com.au, which is really ebay.com.au, thanks dt wiggles guru dt]
UPDATE: It sold for $AU35,700, which is, interestingly, $US37,500. DT sent along a local news story that the cash, donated by Volkswagen to SIDS and Kids, will "be used in the development of an Android version of the Safe Sleeping Education app and the conversion of the app into additional languages." Says Anthony, "Greg, Murray, Jeff and I have shared many happy times in the Volkswagen Big Red Car and Volkswagen Volkswagen Volkswagen." [note: edited for content.]
