It never fails to amaze me just how many old VW Beetles there still on the road here, in the town that time forgot. One day, as I was running around doing some errands, I saw at least ten or twelve, parked or in traffic. And the ones used as daily drivers are mostly driven by young kids; although there are a few exceptions. We should have a contest: to see who can shoot the most Beetles in a given time period.
They made ALOT of them, they didn’t change them much over the years, and the owners were generally quirky enough to keep them going. That coupled with the relative ease of maintenance and repairs, its not that surprising. Mainly because, unlike other mass market cars, people that owned them tended to want to keep them. They are sort of a reverse status symbol.
Not to me mention there’s still a thriving aftermarket industry for them, including availability of most steel body panels that tend towards rot.
Not to mention the Idiot book…
The Idiot manual was pure genius.
I love that book! Has there ever been a more thorough and thoughtful car repair book written then this one? I bought a copy even though I don’t own a Beetle (New Beetle TDI, however) just for the reading experince alone. If you want to understand the workings of an automobile broken down in an entertaining and folksy type of manner, John Muirs book is a must buy.
About 10 years ago, a company was bringing in Mexican Beetles built on old US pans in order to make them legal. I would love to get my hands on one of them!
Ah…mix and match on the flavors. One regular vanilla; one Super Orange.
I had the Super Vanilla when I was able to partake…quite the treat but didn’t have much of a shelf life. Those German delights don’t like freezing and especially not salt.
Heat and dust dont do much for the shelf life either but there are several daily driven VWs here though their popularity was well below US levels when new many are still alive or have been revived.
In the Midwest U.S., they didn’t do so well. Oh, they SOLD well; and they were around a long time – long given the era.
But they rusted. No worse than any other car of the time; but they did rust. First would go the running boards; then the outside channel in the platform would rust and split open. THEN…a number of them rusted out under the back seat, where the battery was.
Eventually the floor would open up in big sheets. The McPherson strut suspension points on the Super Beetle would break away, too…when it happened, it was for the boneyard.
The Salt Belt was the source for hop-up engines for Western dune buggies, built with old Beetles with single-port older engines.
I can walk out in the machine shed and shoot two right now. Three if you count my ’00 New Beetle.
Or, how about this shot from our old house in Georgia?
By the way, that white Beetle is a 1967 model, which had a lot of ‘one year only’ features… Last year for the old-style bumpers, first year for vertical headlights, only year for bumper-mounted reverse lights, first year for 12v electrics, 1500 engine introduced, etc.
I had 67 among several other vintages, best year they built in my opinion.
Today’s kids cannot relish the beatings we gave each other on the bus while en-route to Chicago for the periodic school field-trip. “SlugBug!” *wham*
“Punchbuggy!” Regional thing I guess. I wonder how that ever started.
Love the background wall on the picture.
Punchbuggy, yes.
Two punches if it was a Chicken Delight bug…that was a chicken home-delivery business.
Well, I wouldn’t win such a photo contest. There are maybe two or three old Beetles I see around these parts (central Virginia).
Don’t see too many air cooled VWs around here anymore. Non air conditioned cars aren’t real popular in Texas. Once in a while I see one at a car show.
The most famous VW in Texas is the ’66 1300 of private detective Loren Visser, played by the immortal M. Emmet Walsh, in Blood Simple, the Coen Bros. first film.
“Gimme a call whenever you wanna cut off my head. I can always crawl around without it.”
They sold more VWs back then on the West coast than anywhere else in the USA, that coupled with the fact that cars don’t rust out there means there’s quite a bit still around.
Even where I am, in Alabama, you still see aircooleds on a semi-regular basis. Or a very regular basis if you drive by my house or where I work 😉
There’s enough that a parts place opened up a few months ago for just aircooled VWs and business is booming.
My mother bought one new in 1969 for $2200, six years before I was born. Ran it till 1982 when she bought Grandma’s ’78 Mercury Cougar XR7. Definite upgrade considering the heater rarely worked and the car was completely rusted out.Then it sat beside the house for a couple of years till somebody stopped buy and offered $100 cash for it. After a jump start it fired right up after sitting two years, including two Wisconsin winters. We still think about it as it was the family car for so many years. I still remember the particular sound of the motor and how, towards the end, the drivers door would pop open going around curves because the rust was so bad. It was mom’s first new car. I’m trying to get the same longevity out of my first new car, a 2002 Cavalier. So far so good.
” After a jump start it fired right up after sitting two years, including two Wisconsin winters.”
That’s another movie VW, in Woody Allen’s comedy Sleeper. He winds up in the 22nd century and on the run, finds a 200-year-old Bug in a cave and it starts on the first crank.
Mmmm, Volvo sandwich. Nice.