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Have you ever owned a VW Beetle?

Did you ever own a VW Beetle?

  • Yep, sure did.

    Votes: 199 73.7%
  • Nope

    Votes: 44 16.3%
  • I've got a New Beetle does that count?

    Votes: 7 2.6%
  • I had some other kind of aircooled boxer motor like a Porsche or a Bus

    Votes: 20 7.4%

  • Total voters
    270
VW 1969 in original baby blue. Re-painted in candy apple red and re-covered the seats. Took it on a road trip to Michigan. Got back to Iowa after experiencing various engine related repairs along the way. One day while driving, I heard a boom-whoosh from the rear engine compartment. Got out to open the engine compartment and had a full-blown fire raging. Must have blown a fuel-line based on the intensity.

Had enough time to rip my Marantz cassette deck out of the dash...otherwise...total loss. Engine melted. Would love to have another one.
 
I was stationed in Germany at Sembach Air Force Base in 1963 and bought a new white bug for $1200. I drove it for three years there and shipped it home and drove it to my next duty station at Norad HQ in Colorado Springs. It started smoking real bad between Denver and Colorado Springs but limped in. Had to replace one cylinder. I drove it for about six months out there and sold it for $1250 with 50k miles on it. I guess you could say I got my money's worth out of it.:german
 
I got a new 1969 baby blue. $1,900 and change included tax, license and insurance.
I put 75 k miles on it and a friend was using it, it was rear ended and knocked into a car in front. So it was totaled out.
dc
 
VW family

We had a 68 bus and a 67 Squareback. The Squareback had the pancake motor, the first VW with EFI.

After a summer of slavery running a bulldozer for my dad, I earned enough to buy one of the two. I chose the pancake motor because it was way faster then the bus... even though it was late 60s and the bus was very cool.

The Squareback blew up @ 160k in the middle of an overnight run pulling some bikes to an MX race, with way more than a dropped valve. All four cylinders departed from the crankcase and there was smoke and oil everywhere. Catastrophic.

It was.replaced by a 67 1300, which made for an excellent dune buggy... No I didn't destroy it with one of those awful Fiberglas deals, just drove it as it. My sister ultimately wrecked that one.

My wife's 73 Superbeetle did the dropped valve in #3 cylinder thing.

best cars ever made, IMO... until Subarus got really good. Today I drive a reverse Porsche, a WRX. Boxers rule! :thumb

Ian
 
I bought a used 59 in 1966. It passed down to my brother and then both sisters. I don't remember what finally happened to it. We probably put 200k miles on it. We probably had a dozen of them over the years in our family. Newest was my mother's 71 (IIRC) Karmann Ghia with the automatic clutch. She eventually traded it for a BMW 2002. I was thinking about looking for an old bug or KG (poor man's Porsche) as a restoration project but settled on the RS instead.
 
Got a '57 in 1962. It's quality was great compared to Detroit. It was fun to drive and got great mileage.
Too bad it lost compression on one cylinder and I could not afford to fix it.
 
This thread brought back many good memories of some of the VW's I've had over the years.
Out of curiosity, I checked Craigslist the pass couple of days to see if there were any nice ones for sale in the state of Oregon.
I can't believe what people are asking for them now. One that has been restored is going for what a Porsche 356 was selling for 20 years ago.
There are 50 year old buses that have not been moved for 20 years, completely rusted out with no engine that they are asking $10,000.
 
A black '61, which was t-boned by a Wagoneer. Ouch..

Then a pale aqua '65, sold in '86 to a gent in West Seattle and he's still driving it!

Sort of fun cars in their day, but I sure wouldn't want one again!

Cheers!
 
Vw

Wow! Talk about a long thread..... Congrats to the originator..... I lusted (I know, geek) after a 1968 powder blue VW that my cross country coach drove us around to different meets during high school, so when I got home from Vietnam, I took all my hazardous duty pay and savings during my stint in the Army in 72, and bought a brand new 1972 Super Beetle, (the first year for that model) in bright orange. Payed cash (a little over $2300) and my wife and I drove the behejusus out of that little creature. Spent many nights on the beach in Corpus Christy, Texas, drove once up Pike's Peak, through Utah and mostly grew up and flushed all my frustrations on the war out of my system with her....Fond memories. Still have the same wife, and every once in awhile, think of buying another new bug just for sentimental sake....Still would like to get the powder blue color as it would look great in the garage next to my 01 K1200RS.

Thanks for bring back long ago memories.....:clap:groovy
 
Maybe too many???? Or is that possible?

At 15 years of age I bought, fixed and sold them like candy. Still have VW stuff today. Well kinda sorta? Everything is a mish mash of German engineering in the gargae now.

Still have this bike in the back of my now sold double cab.





Here it is in a different configuration. I am changing things again right now with an all steel hand pounded 1/4 fairing and a set of enduro bags.



Old red is a work in progress. Just picked up a new Hi lip rear rim as it sits in que for attention this winter.



This rig is nuttin but fun to scoot around on!



Cyrano, my innocent looking Square Back T3 wagon.



Where it gets its POWER from, a 300 plus HP 350 NYUK NYUK NYUK

 
Ha! Fun thread here.
Of course I grew up in and driving VW. Bugs, Karman Ghias, and such...
But never owned amVW until more recently. I first bought a 95 Golf, and since have gone on to own a 2011 Tiguan -which I loved but its MPG ranked as dismal- and now own a 2012 Golf TDI.

I kinda lusted after a new style beetle, available in TDI BUT its primarily made in Mexico.
I opted for all parts made in, and full assembly in Germany. 19K and counting with zero issues.
LOVE it.

A comment above about demand for VW vans...
A buddy of mine is a VW van FREAK- he travels all over the country buying and selling parts, and entire vans. No telling how many he has at any given moment, or how many he has gone thru in the several years since I've known him.

I would LOVE to have. VW camper with a diesel- but boy are they hard to come by.
 
My grandfather was a Beetle fanatic when I was a kid, bought my first in 72, right out of college with my first real job. My wife had a green and I had a red, both 73's, when we got married in 1981. Have had a air-cooled pancake enginned car for fun ever since. My kids grew up with a camper, which I sold in 2006, to a guy in UK, for big money. Now driving a restored 73 Thing for the summer, better than brand new, and worth more than all the past Beetles combined.
 
I had a red '67 beetle, my first car. It's owner abandoned it and gave it to me when I was 15 because it was completely rusted out and wouldn't pass inspection. You could see the ground through the floor in the back seat.
I fixed it up with a luxurious amount of caulking compound, Bond-O, aluminum roofing flashing, a couple of old license plates, wooden lath for support, black roofing cement, and some red rattle-can paint. I took it for inspection and the guy smiled at me and shook his head but passed it.
Some high points:
-during my first winter with the bug, the entire clutch lever broke off it's pivot due to rust, dropped through the floor and disappeared while I was driving. I drove it for a month with no clutch, 'bang' shifting between gears, parking on hills to start or else cranking it while in gear, and 'rolling' stops in second gear.
-another time, acrid dense blue smoke started pouring in through the defrost vents while underway. I stopped, opened the hood, pulled the fibreboard backing off the instrument panel, and found most of the dash wiring was on fire. I put it out with a fire extinguisher I carried (the bug also leaked gas) and then spent about an hour carefully pulling all the melted wiring apart. . . since all the insulation was burned off. . . so that no bare wires were touching anywhere. I replaced the fibreboard backing for the dash, got back in, started it up, drove away, and never touched the wiring again.
-on my first attempt at a tune up, I cross threaded the first spark plug I put in and tore the threads. I wrapped the plug with several turns of aluminum foil, 'threaded' it back, and drove it that way for a couple of years before I learned what a helicoil was. My first helicoil.

Fondest memories of any car I ever had, although by far the most troublesome and dangerous. It was totaled when I was hit broadside by someone driving under the influence who ran a stop. Also not a good car to get T-boned in.
 
Not A Beetle But two Tyoe 3s

I never owned a VW Beetle but two type threes - one a carb model the other fuel injected. The fuel injected one went 180,000 miles; they were notorious for being finicky but I had very little trouble with it.
 
I kinda lusted after a new style beetle, available in TDI BUT its primarily made in Mexico.
I opted for all parts made in, and full assembly in Germany. 19K and counting with zero issues.
LOVE it.

Nothing wrong with the TDI New Beetle I had. Doubt its motor was assembled in Mexico and am also pretty sure there haven't been German-assembled VW (or Audi) engines since maybe the 1990s. Do you like Hungary better than Mexico? When I toured the Mercedes gasoline vee engine plant in Germany in 2006, our engineer/escort made every effort to point out there were no German-made Audi engines. South Carolina-assembled BMWs and Alabama-assembled Mercedes get German-built engines, and I'd be pretty confident Tennessee-built VWs get Euro but again not German made engines.
 
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almost 40 years ago, I bought a 65 or 66. took out all the fluids and battery, tipped it on its side and took off the body. Suspended it on lots of cinder blocks, and cut out I think 14 inches of the floor pan. Welded back, and then fitted a dune buggy body. Hard part was shorting the shift tube and not cutting the tubes for the clutch, throttle, brake? I had help from someone experienced. Then ordered a big bore kit, header, camshaft, good clutch, 2 bbl kits from JC Whitney. drove the heck out of it, then sold it and made a little profit. Very little. Learned that customizing cars is not normally profitable., You do it for fun. also learned that driving a slow car fast is more fun than a fast car slow.

It was fun. Someday might get another.

Rod
 
Yup!!!

I had two Beetles (69 and 72) back in my college days. They were a great car in the summer, but up here in Canada you drove with one hand on the wheel and the other with a windshield ice scraper during the winter.
Cheers!::thumb
 
4 cyl Boxers...

1961 Type 1 (Bug)
1968 Karmann Ghia Cab (convertible)
1971 Type 2 (Bus)
1973 Type 2
1976 Type 2 (2.0 liter EFI!!)
1961 Porsche 356 Super 90 (B)

...all gone...but not forgotten!!!!
 
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