It never fails to amaze me how many daily driver air-cooled VWs there are on the streets here. Well that and Eurovans.
CC Outtake: Just Another Typical Eugene Street Scene
– Posted on September 23, 2013
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Curbside Classics Archives
Don’t Beetles look great in bright primary colours?
Eurovans I see all the time air cooled VWs not so much there are some getting around but certainly not in Eugene concentrations, no doubt more will come to light during VW week.
I think I see what you did, caught that yeller feller in the distance too.
Seems VW’s are still pretty popular up this way too, as are the buses, I see them quite often. In fact, there are two elderly ones up here on Capitol Hill, a bus, and bug, and at least one of them appears to move under its own power too.
Love the colors of both bugs.
As to the Eurovan, I see these on occasion as well, though they don’t hold a candle to the older buses however.
Once in a while I’m tempted to scoop up a derelict ’68-’74 Bug ( somewhat safer than earlier ones ) as a fun runner for zipping around town. Then I sit or ride in one, and I remember why I haven’t.
I’m 6’4″, 230 lbs. with a sometimes dicey lower back. I also like big cushy seats and stump-pulling torque.
No old VWs for me I guess.
I got to ask, but is there some trend to buy a VW Beetle and restore it using original to the era engine parts etc and yet not bother with the rear bumper? I have been seeing more and more of the Beetles of vintage yore in both CC pics and other pics and in real life missing the rear bumpers. It seems to me that this be one vehicle that needs all the crash protection it can get.
My ’64 was missing both front and rear bumpers when I bought it from the son of the original owner. If I remember right, they had taken some minor damage (enough to bend them but not enough to damage the car itself), and he never got around to replacing them.
A popular mod for older Beetles was to replace the bumpers with little “guards” that basically just replaced the bumper mounts with short pieces that stuck out a few inches (no bumper). Makes the car look “clean,” but as you say, it gives up what meager protection the bumpers had to start with.
Nerf bars (as on this one) were a common customization. I dont see this as much in recent times. Re-chroming stock bumpers is prohibitively expensive for collector cars in this price range and reproduction bumpers are so thin as not to add much actual protection.
Everyone’s keeping up with the Kremplers. (YouTube link here)
Maybe time to show the American readership pics of the modern VW Van / Transporter how it is being used on a daily basis these days. Still as common and ubiquitous as the air cooled ones in the past.
There is simply nothing unique about the modern one. It looks very generic and boring. It has the same transverse engine FWD configuration as every US/Japanese branded van all over American streets today. VW of America even sold a Chrysler van to us with VW emblems a few years ago.
True, but that did not prevent them of becoming quite succesfull, sort of standard in its class, despite the numerous other decent offerings around in Europe.
The VW Caravelle is not the same vehicle as the VW Routan sold in the US (which is a rebadged Chrysler Town & Country).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Transporter_(T5)
Trashed out, luxuried up, as police vehicles, construction pick-up, in camouflage army drag or as king size (to European standards) family hauler. Many Americans may not know how dominant the VW Transporter still is today.