Hey, check out those flares! (insert wolf whistle)
Some things are Simply Irresistible. Things like chili, fresh socks, new wiper blades, and, of course, that thing nearest and dearest to a young man’s heart, that one thing he spends almost his entire waking life dreaming of, hoping for, and worshipping from afar.
An air-cooled type 1 VW Beetle.
“How can it be permissible
She compromise my principle
That kind of love is mythical
She’s anything but typical”
It was 1989 and I “needed” a car.
Well not really, I owned a pair of pickups and a motorbike, and I needed a car like, as mom would have said, I needed another hole in my head. But faint hearts never won fair maiden, and I’d just won mine being recently wedded. It was time to man up by providing a proper car for the missus to scurry about in, or at least that was the official party line for why I “needed” a car.
You know what a proper car is, right? Proper car for a young couple in 1989 that is. Toyota Corolla. Honda Civic. That’s what all my friends were scurrying about in. One friend had a Tercel which, and this was a total shocking moment for me, could have hot air blow out of the dash vents. Golly gee I’d never seen the like!
Leapin’ Lizards these people love these cars!
So I came home one night and declared to the wife that we needed a car. She was surprised by this, since our transport requirements were being met quite adequately, but being a new bride was eager to cooperate and gave assent for me to find us a car. You’d have now expected a couple of field trips to the local HonToyMazNiss dealers, intently staring at a base model Tepid in moonstone rose beige with 13″ steel wheels and the semi-cloth seats while a salesman droned on about how smooth the ride was with it’s fancy Macpherson struts and Euro inspired blah blah blah.
Nah. I had no intention whatsoever of buying any normal, proper car that reasonable people buy to give them honest, reliable transport. Not then, not now.
Who the hell wants to drive a normal car when the VW type 1 beckons?
Ugly??!! Bah! Universally proclaimed as the Best Car Ever™ by millions.
For years I’d been harboring a secret obsession about air-cooled Beetles bordering on the irrational. Walking by one on the street I’d linger, awkwardly trying to engage, to connect, a quick touch of the chrome, a hand caressing the headlight, nervously scanning for the owner, skulking off quickly when it become obvious to passers-by that I was being inappropriate.
In my defense the lithe little VWs’ were hard to resist and seemed to be seducing me. Those big round lights followed me down the sidewalks, the purring flat four motor spoke my language. Ok, yes, so she, er, uh, it, had a complex history with a lot of baggage, but who doesn’t? That’s all part of the charm, part of the game. I could no longer resist.
Hey, hey mister, check out my big lights!
Scanning the Thrifty Nickel classifieds brought up lots of potential VW hookups. We were living up in Humboldt County near Eureka, California at the time, motto “Where the 60’s meet the sea”, and lots and lots of Beetles were hanging about, waiting to get to know me. There was a skanky 70′ model I did a quick once-over with, she was mostly red, and only $500 bucks, her seats were totally worn through and you know you get what you pay for. Several other rough and tumble type 1’s were interviewed, but something wasn’t clicking for me with any of them.
Then I saw her. I was puttering about town on some meaningless errand and she was on a street corner with a red “For Sale” sign. Suddenly I was pulling an illegal u-turn to go back for another look! A Baja! Oy vey. Warm creamy metallic brown skin, er, uh, paint. Orange and yellow stripes. Big honking off road tires with white spoke rims. Racing steering wheel. All black interior in perfect shape, just look at those seats! And there, tattooed painted right on her backside above the engine, was her name, “Ba-Hum-Bug”. (We’ll call her Hummy)
Nice rear view eh? (wink wink, nudge, nudge)
“She’s a craze you’d endorse
She’s a powerful force
You’re obliged to conform when there’s no other course
She used to look good to me, but now I find her
Simply irresistible”
I knew within 30 seconds that I was going to buy this car. (Pro Tip: if you don’t know within 30 seconds that you are going to buy the car, then you’re doing it wrong) I wrote down the owners phone number, got him on the blower as soon as I got home, and arranged a nighttime rendezvous.
Now that’s a fine ride. And a very early Bug as well, at least an Oval and maybe a Split.
She was everything I’d dreamed she would be. Quick, sporty, fun, just a great, great car. We roared about town in her on that test date, er, uh, drive, and I couldn’t find a single fault. Not one! Perfection. I agreed to the owners price of $2,500 dollars, didn’t even try to talk him down a penny, not for a car this good -that would be an insult, and told him I’d be back for the Baja bug the next day.
“She’s a natural law and she leaves me in awe
She deserves the applause, I surrender because
She used to look good to me but now I find her
Simply irresistible”
Oh yeah, we didn’t have $2,500 dollars. In fact, now this is a minor point but a frequent one in my tales, we didn’t have any money at all. But love will find a way, it always does.
O Glorious Day!!
Next morning we went, hat in hand, to the NeedMoney Now fast loans bank. Asked the nice Bank Lady™ for a loan to buy a car. (That’s how big people do it right, they get “car loans”, right?)
“What kind of car?” she inquired through her big 80’s glasses and shoulder padded suit.
“A 1969 VW Bug”.
Silence for a moment. “We don’t do car loans for cars like that, it’s too old”.
You want to buy a WHAT??!
Sweat started to bead on my brow, I had to swing some loot to land Hummy! I was going to do anything to get money from this bank! We found out that the bank would do something called an “unsecured personal loan”. I’d never heard of any of this before, knowing nothing about finances having slept through those classes in college. (Who freaking cares about all that money stuff anyway??) The interest rate, and I think memory serves correctly here, was something like 16%, the payments $89 a month for three years. $3,200 bucks owed to them to pay for a 2500 buck loan, yeah, sure, whatever, where do I sign!!
My VWs conversion kit seemed to be a one-off homebrew, and not from any kit I ever saw advertised back in the day.
Not sure what my wife thought of all this even though she was sitting right there. I was too busy being a great husband and wrangling a great deal out of the Bank Lady™ to bother to notice if she was looking horrified, amused, happy, angry or just sullen.
Bank Lady™ cut me a check for 2500 big ones, and happily I, er, uh, we walked out into the sunshine, it was so exciting. Do you know that feeling you get when you first fall in love? The air seems sweeter, the colors brighter, life is more alive, your step has a spring. That was what it felt like walking out of the bank that day, damn I was happy, I was about to bring home a VW Baja bug!
“She’s unavoidable, I’m backed against the wall
She gives me feelings like I never felt before
I’m breaking promises, she’s breaking every law”
Soon to be me!
Well we bought the Baja, got her home and gave her the full and complete examination, you know, to see what I’d got in the cold harsh light of day. Hmm. 1600cc dual port head engine, not stock for a 69′ but no complaints from me on her having a bigger motor. Horsepower? Only the shadow knows for sure, the previous owner claimed 85 (hahahaha) and that she had a “hot cam”, hence the slightly lumpy and dreamlike sweet idle. Brakes sucked, being all drums and leaking from the wheel cylinders. And what’s this under the battery? (which is under the rear seat on a Bug) Plywood? And under that? Why it looks like the road! Yes indeed, complete rust through of the sheet metal in the floorpan and in several places. And is that entire side made of Bondo? Yes, yes it is. Chipped and cracked windshield it seems as well.
Wasn’t this a Japanese plastic model kit or something?
And quite frankly she didn’t run right. Hard to get started in the morning. Well aren’t we all? But then hesitated a lot, stalled out a fair amount, seems to run rich then lean, and leaks a lot of oil. A lot. Godawful gas mileage for a bug. Muffler was bad. Tires had funny wear. No heat, at all, which admittedly was never a strong point of any air-cooled VW, but Hummy took it to extremes and had not a single iota of warm air out of those vents when you called for heat to warm the cockles.
These are the various books, magazines and catalogs I have left over from my fling with Hummy. Sometimes, when the wife is out shopping, I’ll pull them out, sit on the floor, and lovingly page through them, notice Hummy’s grease stains on the pages, and remember all the good times. Sigh.
And she wasn’t exactly what you’d call reliable, but who really is? She’d get temperamental and leave you on the side of the road. Often she didn’t want to go home when you did, wanted to linger about a bit longer, enjoying the fresh air and the scenery. You had to wait on her, she’d come along in her own good time.
No problem, I got this. Simply get a credit card to pay for the few needed repairs to keep my VW mistress maintained, right? And so I did.
Need a little help over here!!
Did you know that you can buy almost every part for a VW type 1 Beetle brand new? Gas tank, windshield, carb, brake drums, fuel pump, and even sheet metal ready to weld in to cover the rusted out holes in the floorpan. While I was at it I upgraded this and that, you know like added an oil temp gauge, lots of new trim inside and out, gasket kits to fix leaks, rust repairs, new tires and lots of wax and Armor-All etc. Looks are very important you know.
Mad Max: Fury Road’s Baja Bug. I’d totally roll in this car and so would you.
Hummy was expensive. I kept charging the parts on the card, did you know you can make payments of only like $35 bucks a month and get all sorts of cool stuff with a credit card?! Exciting times having her as my, uh, carfriend.
Drove her everywhere, from Seattle to Los Angeles and points between. Not once did she “break down”! Now maybe she needed a little coaxing to start back up sometimes, or maybe a quick part replaced before she was ready to get back on the road, but nothing I’d call a nasty ol’ “break down”. Geesh, some people, throwing shade on my great car.
VW’s NEVER break down, you can always get them moving again.
And damn she looked good! Turned heads. Driving that car was like being in your own personal parade, people gazed, ogled, waved. Strangers came up to talk at gas stations. Kids pointed and grinned. Took her to the beach a lot, her natural element, and she’d get loose in the sand as you manhandled her shifter and twirled the wheel about, laughing. You came out of stores to find people milling about her, smiling and happy. People loved her, she was exciting, different, and fun, a breathe of fresh air in the sea of boring boxy hatchbacks and somnolent sedans driven by the brainwashed masses. (Fight The Man, get a Bug!)
“Her methods are inscrutable
The proof is irrefutable
She’s completely kissable
Our lives are indivisible”
Cheesy? Not at all, not once you’ve felt the fervor of Beetle Love.
All she required of me was money and time. A whole lot of money. All the time. How much money? I dunno exact figures, but I know I spent more on repairs and upgrades than the purchase price. Never bothered me, not once, coughing up all that dough, making that horrible bank loan, and throwing all that money at a Bondo buggy that was just a pretty face plastered on top of caveman 1940’s era tech. I don’t have a single regret about it. You do crazy things for love, you roll the dice and risk it all, jeopardize reputation, financial stability, sanity. Love is like that. If it doesn’t risk burning your house down then why bother? Can I get an amen?
Palmer nailed it on so many levels.
Oh and that whole providing a car for the new wife to drive about in? Nah, smoke screen. I drove the Baja all the time. She was mine.
One day in the early 90’s I took a “job” in Texas. Well it was a job in the sense that it came with duties and job like stuff that all the big people did, an office, papers to shuffle, phones to answer, etc, only problem was it didn’t actually come with a salary. Who cares! We’ll figure it out! Rented a U-Haul, on the credit card of course, and off we went heading for central Texas. But alas, taking three vehicles was cost prohibitive. So we kept the 81′ Toyota pickup (because it had working AC) and towed it along, stored the 73′ Chevy pickup at my folks, and with a heavy, heavy heart and lots of sighs, I broke it off with Hummy and ended the red hot affair.
Sold her.
Exactly
Got $1,800 bucks for her from some plinker loser dude. He was not worthy and I was dumb as dirt about money. As someone famous once said about me, “Stupid is as stupid does”.
It was enough to pay off the bank and get shoulder-pad Bank Lady off my back, so that was something.
All I have left of Hummy, her original carb. I keep it on a shelf in the garage where I can see it each day. Weird? I think not.
Looking back now, decades later, I still feel the thrill of that car. Exciting to drive, and the pure almost wicked pleasure of just sitting next to her and staring at her beautiful lines, glossy metallic paint, and sensuous curves. Ah, the flings of youth.
“Simply irresistible
(She’s so fine, there’s no tellin’ where the money went)
Simply irresistible
(She’s all mine, there’s no other way to go)”*
*Song Lyrics from “Simply Irresistible” by Robert Palmer, 1988.
Dedicated to my friend Kent Gaston, 1958-2017
I say, give this man a cigar! You deserve it, pal.
Lovely piece, totally bonkers. But passion is like that…
There is nothing worse than falling completely in love with a car that turns around and treats you like crap. I have had a couple of those. At least I never took loans out to buy them. So I felt better when they left me penniless.
Bravo, another great story!
“Hello, my name is Doug and I’m a VW enthusiast…”
Spot on man! Forget the annoyance of stuck seat tracks and battery under the seat, VW love is grand. And as you said, you can buy any part. Even if the quality is obviously not quite as good as the original.
The first year of marriage is indeed a special time, I hearken back to the days when Mrs DougD used to think “well, Doug thinks this is OK so it must be OK”, the days before the motorcycle trip to British Columbia changed all that forever… 🙂
“Hi, Doug.”
“Hi, Doug. Mine’s a ’66 with hard to find 6 volt battery, but she doesn’t leak oil”
I had a similarly tawdry and expensive affair with a ’75 MG Midget back in the late ’80’s.
I can ‘credit’ (pun intended) the Moss Motors catalogue and my many, many purchases from them for initially helping me to establish an actual credit rating as a struggling college student. I’m sure I don’t have to elaborate on the pitfalls associated with “building credit” in such a manner. The affair with the car lasted about 18 months. The less affectionate relationship it had helped me to establish with Citibank Visa lasted considerably longer.
I’m a recovering VW Beetle addict. But mine treated me a bit better than yours. But back then (early 70s) one could still pick up one or two-owner cared-for VWs for sort-of cheap, which does not describe yours.
I had very ambivalent feelings about the Baja Bugs. I liked the idea of off-roading in one, but the reality of cutting one up was a bit painful, for a lover of the original thing.
It’s easier to cut one up when it has bad bones like that one did. Now, find me one with pristine heater channels, no rust and a pan without rock dents and I’ll be restoring it to original color and interior with absolutely stock everything as God and Heinz Nordhoff intended.
Back then and in California, they weren’t rusty, except perhaps under the battery, like his. Many a clean, intact and unrusted Beetle was cut up in SoCal. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not like Nate and down on folks who did this or other things to Beetles; it’s just that I would have had a hard time. Maybe not, though, if I had really wanted one, as there were millions around back then.
Sometimes a baja kit was used as a cheap fix after a wreck. A few Beetles were saved a one way trip to the junkyard back in the day using this method. Occasionally I’d see a car with the kit only on one end, most of the time the front end only. Today hacking a solid Beetle for a baja would make me wince.
In the mid ’70’s I stripped out a ’59 Beetle that had been lightly rear ended for a fiberglass dune buggy I built. I was actually a passenger in the ’65 Mustang that hit it, the 2 drivers knew each other and were being stupid. The Beetle was driven from the wreck to the owners home without a working fan, it was smoking when he got it home but the old 36 HP engine still ran fine. Even back then I was a little sad junking the remains but it was a $300 car back then.
Indeed, I looked at Baja Kit Bugs in the same way as customized Corvettes: likely an accident repair where someone got an insurance buy-out on the cheap and it was more cost-effective to go the customization route instead of OEM repair.
People still cut them up my friend and I collected a car trailer from one of his VW nutter mates and got a look in his shed, two beetles in there a mint original 57 oval undriven for 20 years and a solid 64 sunroof sedan minus front fenders big fat 100 spoke wheels extended suicide front axle baha type rear end its getting a full house 2.5 L engine should be quite the weapon, the 57 is having the engine pulled and original tinware fitted, One guy two different approaches Both are all good from my point of view.
Looking back I think mine may have been one of those jobbers that got hit and fixed up as a Baja. The passenger side seemed to be mostly Bondo, the door fit funny, and the jamb was a bit weird looking as well.
Thanks, that makes three great posts this morning. Made my Monday.
Also, in yet another case of the CC effect, I saw a very nice Baja Bug on the 163 (yes I am in Southern California, why do you ask) on Saturday. Except that one was actually even a round window bug (!)
Irrational Love, thy name is Volkswagen. Great story.
Your mentioning an oil temperature gauge gave me a flashback with face palm: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1971-vw-1302-super-beetle-thinking-with-your-dipstick/
Very well written and the love is still strong decades after air cooled Beetles stopped being made .
Paul here re lit my fire after many years, a mostly original 1959 # 113 is in my back yard now waiting for me to get out of this damned wheelchair and build up a nice 36HP engine for it…
Rust ! dents ! pitted glass ! anemic 6 volt electrical system ! wobbly king pins in dire need of adjustment if not new bushings ! swing axle rear suspension that can tuck in under *really* hard manoevers and cause the car to roll on it’s side ! what’s not to love ?? =8-) .
I guess a Baja Bug had more cachet than an Oldslowmobile EconoLuxe or a Mercury Mistake ? .
Yours had the ball joint front suspension and CV jointed rear end so it really did handle well although I prefer the early types best .
Thinking back to all the hundreds of Baja Bugs I bought, sold, built (! out of wrecks only !), service and sometimes parted out, I never saw one with the clever name yours had .
That carby is the better model of 34MM, a Brosol Brazilian ones and if the float is white plastic you should replace it .
Add a # 130 main jet and a g65 idle jet and be amazed at how well your 1300 ~ 1600 bone stock engine will go plus idle perfectly and start easily etc. .
Your story of the follies of youth is very good indeed , THANK YOU .
-Nate
Bravo, Heath! Just what the Dr. ordered after a challenging morning at work.
I was exposed to my old man’s VW obsession during the early ’70’s. As Paul pointed out, this was when good examples were still easy to find. Of course, it helped that he found a most excellent VeeDub mechanic to handle the more involved repairs.
I have many happy memories of riding in, driving and puttering around with his red Karmann Ghia and various bugs. My favorite was his cream-colored ’69 bug.
Fast forward to the early ’80s and then everything was different. His VW mechanic retired and dad’s income stream kind of dried up. Circumstances forced him to try and keep the magic happening a little too long. His last VWs were rusted-out beaters that barely ran.
Since then, I’ve harbored very little yearning for a VW of my own. (But your presentation of a Baja Bug as a lust object gets me to thinking…
OH HELL, NO!) 😉
I haven’t seen a good Baja Bug in a while. Even in central North Carolina you’d run across them every so often back in the 80’s. Yours looked the part, even if it wasn’t the most reliiable thing on 4 wheels!
another great read, an thanks for the Robert Palmer flashback too. I’m going to have to break out “Sneakin Sally Through the Alley” tonight
In 1989 I had a similar conversation with a different Bank Lady about buying a 1972 Karmann-Ghia. Goldang I wanted that car. 60k on the clock, no rust anywhere. I heard the same thing: we don’t lend on cars that old.
Difference was, I had insufficient credit history even for an unsecured loan. I did everything short of approaching the mob for a loan to get the cash for that car. Just $1500 they wanted. Nobody would lend me.
But I was able to walk into a Chevy dealership and, on the strength of my freshly minted degree from an engineering school, borrow $10,000 to buy a brand new car. At 13%.
Stupid. But, frankly, the new car was the better choice long term. Drove it for 8 years and 150,000 miles.
Is that a 427 Corvette hood scoop? 😀 Baha bugs are all sorts of cool to me, I laughed and related all through this story, great photo captions!
Thankfully the payments on my 2015 Nissan keep me from buying an old Beetle. But the lust is still there. Do I dare do it a third time?
Yes. Yes you do. Trust me.
“… that thing nearest and dearest to a young man’s heart, that one thing he spends almost his entire waking life dreaming of, hoping for, and worshipping from afar. An air-cooled type 1 VW Beetle.”
Bet me, Batman. I have NEVER wanted a VW back then, now, or in the future. I have driven several Beetles years ago, and while fun to drive in good conditions, to actually spend money to own one? Nope. I do like Kubelwagens (VW Things), though…
Give me a nice Chevy, instead, and I’m a happy man.
However: I still have a funny 20 page booklet from 1968 from Volkswagen in which artist Virgil Partch of “Big George” comic strip fame illustrated various scenarios that played right into the stereotypical VW owner. THAT is still pretty cool.
“Hi, Zack.”
Thank you for bringing back memories of that Virgil Partch book. I’d forgotten about it for decades.
Reading this makes me wonder how different life would have been for me had my father taken Volkswagen of America up on their offer to open the new Indiana, PA franchise. Six months after he left the Chevrolet dealership.
What a great read. The love for the Bug was a major part of our lives for so long. The great part about living in SoCal is seeing a really nice one on the street every so often. I admire your attitude of just slapping down the credit card and enjoying the ride. However, it is painful to read how much a 20-year old 69 VW cost you. I bought mine new in the summer of 69 for a lot less – see attached (trade-in was a 63). Only options were the Blaupunkt radio and whitewalls. Standard for 69 (in the US) were the new IRS, electric rear window defroster, and day/night mirror. As Paul often notes, the US Type 1s were really nicely equipped.
And a SUN ROOF no less ! .
-Nate
Wow cool! The inflation calculator claims that’s a smidge under $14 grand in 2017 money for your 69′. Really pretty car.
Great to see the invoice and picture! Wish I’d kept the Owner’s Manual from mine. I bought it from the woman who bought it new for her oldest daughter. The purchase information was on the inside of the back cover. I think it said $1999. One picture was taken of mine with my best friend and I standing in front of it. Taken by his mom. I’m sure someone still has it in their family photos. I sure would like to see it. What a trip back in time this has been.
Another option new for ’69 was the cable release gas filler door with the pull inside the glove box. Dad’s ’68 didn’t have it.
Looks like a Corvette L88 hood scoop.
I can’t tell you how much I hate that song… erm… I think i just did.
More quality mirth from the proto-plinker.
If you can’t subtract, then add…
A friend of mine has VWs a kombi and a beetle we just moved the beetle out of temporary storage today into its new stall for the restoration to be completed engine is out at pres but the car itself is immaculate its a 63 Aussie CKD kit so different from US models as it has the wider luggage compartment and the different front fenders to the earlier models the Kombi move is next when we get a dry day, the front drive Mazda MPV tow car doesnt do wet grass where the storage barn is very well and the lowered van cant be driven out of the shed its in the step is too much for it.
No, you cannot get an amen. Marry for money and buy a Tepid, or you may not have a comfortable retirement, indeed, at some future stage, you may even die.
And, the hell with it, I can tell you now what I bet no-one would then – not only was your expensive mistress not a looker, everyone in the city had seen her undercarriage front and back.
Still tossing up if the “Tepid” or its “semi-cloth” seats was the funnier line; or both first among a bunch of excellent equals here.
Great stuff again, Mr McClure.
Global search and replace with “’59 Lincoln Mk IV convertible” and, well…? Great story!
I fell in love with VWs when Dad bought the first one. My sister Linda graduated from high school in ’68 and got a job 60 miles away. Dad bought her a ’61 Beetle. It was very well worn. We brought it home and set about getting it in shape. With the mechanicals sorted out, I began work on the body with not so good results. Dad smoothed it out. He bought a small electric compressor with a spray gun and painted it light metallic blue. I wasn’t crazy about the color, but it was a 100% improvement and Linda really liked it. That’s all that mattered. By the time we finished, I wanted one. I was 13 and had dreams about them and window shopped the VW section of the J.C. Whitney catalog. Then, more VWs came into the family. Suzanne bought a cream colored ’66 with a metal sunroof. I loved that car. Christine and her husband bought a new ’71 Deluxe Station Wagon (bus) which they’d ordered. $2800. Finally, my turn. It was 1972. I was 17. I bought a beat up, not running ’69 Beetle. Bought 1600 pistons from Whitney’s of course, had it painted. I treated it to stainless gravel guards, blue cocoa mats and flared tip exhaust pipes. All genuine VW options. Though it was mostly stock, I bought VW magazines and wore out the pages. Still have some of them. Today, I have a ’72 Westfalia. I’m rebuilding the engine and it will be getting painted soon. I love my bus. Can’t wait to be driving it again. Thanks, Heath, for the wonderful story!
I forgot to add, that my Beetle was a beautiful Cobalt Blue. I bought genuine VW paint. I believe it cost $23 a quart! I think it took three to do the car.
Ad from the Hot VWs Quarterly. Wanted, but never bought any of these goodies. Spent all my money getting my Beetle back in shape.
Just one more.
Great old ads! I still an old JC Whitney catalog for VWs, remember that?
I do! Wish I’d kept one. They had just about everything for VWs. It was your great writing that inspired me to get the magazines out and scan the ads. I thought the Beetle in the “Don’t call it a bug anymore” ad looked very cool back then, and I still do. Thanks again, Heath. Made me feel like I was seventeen again.
I was a body man in the late 1960’s before I was drafted. We did a lot of Beetles. They weren’t rusted; yet. 90% had front end damage. How could a slow car with sizable brakes so often run into the rear end of something bigger? At least there was no radiator to bust. I put many glass covered headlights together, along with US front bumpers.
When I came back from ‘Nam and got married, my wife had a 3 year old Barracuda. That meant I could find and drive all kinds of worn out crap. I loved it. I did trade a dead VW for a running Fiat 850. My wiife decided to drive it everday. I think she caught the disease from me