Reality is stranger than fiction, and Volkswagen’s history certainly fits that assessment. The unlikeliest automotive powerhouse, that rose on the unexpected success of the curious and offbeat VW Beetle. The Volkswagen story is certainly a fascinating one, but nothing would be of the company without those who took to their unique products.
So here’s a brief gallery of such Volkswagen people during the company’s rise. Understandably, it’s mostly Beetles; but there are a few other models that should please the air-cooled faithful.
We’ve seen a ton of these galleries of folks with their cars, but this is the first one in which the participants all seem happy. Not a grumpy face in the lot! I particularly like the NJ gran with her black Beetle. It’s a great demonstration of how the love for the VW spread across all generations.
My first thought too—happy VW people!
Uncle Albert didn’t buy a car until he was in middle age. It was a Beetle and it added to his generally positive demeanour. I was overjoyed when we visited and he took five-year-old me to get ice cream. “Turn this knob in the floor to get heat!”
My favourite pic in this fine group is the stylish lady in her light yellow Karmann Ghia, cigarette and all.
Aaaand, look at that ’59 Ford in the background of the second shot, on the same day as Joseph Dennis’ great post about one such car.
An internal CC Effect™ if you will…. 😉
In the shot below that one, I spy a ’60 Dodge.
That “Ford” got my attention as well.
Looks to me like Volkswagen owners or fans took better than average snaps, or were there more of these to choose from because of the coolness factor? I think of my uncle, who had some very expensive German cameras (a Rolleiflex medium-format TLR, and a Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex Super BC) that were able to take photos quite a bit better than an average snapshot. He was a Buick guy though, wouldn’t have considered a VW. Maybe a Mercedes, but Buicks were pretty darn good cars up through the ’70s.
My first real camera was a hand-me-down Yashica 44, which is what you bought when a Rolleiflex was too big or expensive. Still a TLR but used 127 film, which was awesome for slides because the transparency almost filled the available 2″x2″ mount, much larger than the 35mm slides but used the same projectors and viewers. Alas, I didn’t think to shoot photos of our ’68 Bug. Who’d want to look at photos of VWs when you could just walk down the street and see four of them?
Most are NY or California, unsurprisingly.
The two-tone notchback has a San Diego license frame. Probably a Navy man, since notchbacks were all gray-market, often brought back by military men.
Microbus in the far background of that same photo.
First one I ever saw on the road was in northern “VA”. Would a been about “1973ish”.
I was familiar with the fastbacks/squarebacks. That “unicorn” amazed me.
Was beige, as I recall.
There was something inherently fun about Volkswagens, even with their slowpoke engines and oversteer.
That picture of a family bus trip brings back fond memories of travels in our own 1970 bus. My dad would take out the middle seat and unroll a piece of shag carpeting for us kids to lie around on. The playpen fit nicely in there too. Behind the back seat above the engine was the perfect spot for spying on other cars zooming by.
I sometimes felt a little jealous of friends who rode in “normal” station wagons, but they couldn’t stand up and walk around inside a Vista Cruiser.
Last pic… alright, alright, alright!
I’m a bit sad that I don’t have a single picture of either of my beetles. But then they do all look rather alike.
The “KG”, convertible makes me want to hop in , ride away!
Yessir, that’s a bunch of happy and/or proud VW owners.
Let’s see if I got this right.
1st pic is a ’65.
2nd, ’56 or ’57.
3rd, ’60-62.
4th, ’56-’59 Ghia.
5th, ’60-’62.
6th, ’64.
7th, early ’60’s Notch.
8th, ’68 or ’69 Ghia.
9th, ’55-’57.
10th, ’72 Bus.
The last two are ’68 or ’69.
The light colored running board covers make me think the penult is a 68. My 69 has black.
A unique photo from my old albums: my wife actually WASHING her ’71 Super Bug……not something she has ever done with regularity! I guess she really did like her “personal” VW! 🙂 DFO
This gallery looks more like a VW commercial! I want one too!
Great collection, as always Rich! So much pride and charm, in every photo.
That first photo totally has a Norman Rockwell still life feel to it. Would make an outstanding realist oil painting.
I don’t recall seeing a Beetle back in Maryland circa 1962-66. Might have since I really didn’t pay close attention to our family cars before the age of 10.To be honest it wasn’t till I was 15, and one year away from my license, that I REALLY paid attention to cars. A crash course in all cars by the Big Three ensued.
So when we moved to Los Angeles in 1966 I can’t name what my mother drove as an example and I was 12. However, in the first month in the Valley, someone came by to take my mother and us three kids to Santa Monica Beach via going over the hills. That day was a two fer. My first and only ride in a VW Beetle. The second was my first look at a couple of young women, participating in a Hollywood promotion, wearing gold string bikinis.Never rode in a Beetle again, yet as for bikinis, well let’s say that became history…
I owned 2 bugs, a 1968 and 1969. I could fix these cars, they were simple and well built. I camped in these cars. They were air cooled, no coolant here, and I wonder if Volkswagen would see fit to build them again.
Volkswagen has been a part of my life from the start. Up to age four, my family had a coral red Beetle in Hawaii that my mom said “could float when the storm drains backed up on Kalakaua Ave.”
I still remember the feel and smell of the woolen carpeting in the “way back,” and the engine lulling me to sleep on the way home from the beach.
My favorite shot here is the NY man in the hat with his pale blue ’64. So proud!
The first photo is having fun with the sliding steel sunroof. Looks like a demonstration of how the thing works. I still remember the first time I saw one of these cool steel sunroofs with the plastic rotating handle with GOLDE stamped on it. A rental Bug in Germany on our 1966 family vacation.
The ’68 Beetle with the AUTOMATIC decal on the rear window is a rare shot. The automatic stick shift was new then and a bit odd! But it worked pretty well, only slower, lol.
Neither a fan of beetles nor of VWs in general. But these shots are great. Each.
Loving these pictures ! .
FWIW, the M8 semi-automatic was in fact faster in the 1/4 mile than the four speeds, most folks bought them specifically to drive slower with less shifting .
I agree that these folks look happy, I still get that silly grin every time I slide behind the wheel of my ’59 Beetle, it’s no cherry but the driving of it is simply wonderful if slow .
-Nate
Nate,
Find that hard to believe. I’m gonna look up the specs. Maybe I’ll be surprised!
We have the facts in our vintage reviews.
Road Test took both versions to the drag strip and here are the results:
Automatic stick shift: 22.49 seconds
4-speed manual: 20.46 seconds
Hint: I’ve learned not to take everything that Nate says literally. In this case, it made no sense to start with.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/vintage-comparison-test-1968-economy-imports-really-big-comparison-of-really-small-cars/
Hey thanks Paul,
I also looked the data up in my VW shop guide, “Without Guesswork” 1960 thru 1970. Yep, big 2 seconds slower with the automatic stickshift.
My Dad first drove a beetle while in the US Army stationed in Germany (near the Czech border) sometime around 1950-1953 which they assigned him (guess instead of a Jeep). He also drove a REO truck on occasion. His first “2nd” car was a ’59 Beetle which he had from ’66 to ’68 (it was totalled parked in front of our house). By the time 1980 rolled around he stopped buying imports and went domestics for the rest of his life.
Never was an aircooled guy, unlike my Father I’ve owned 3 watercooled VWs as my only car since 1981…my current Golf is an ’00