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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

kbasa

Well-known member
OK, Cliffy made me do it. There's a discussion going on about tools and it turns out a bunch of folks have owned Beetles. The question was posted, "I wonder how many BMW riders have owned a Beetle?"

So, have you?

:dunno
 
I owned a couple- a '62 and a '71
Both were a blast! The old one got turned into a buggy and died in the middle of a river. The '71 got wrapped around a telephone pole (my fault)
 
Hello; My first new car was a 68 beetle deluxe, in 78 I had a 61 beetle that served us well for a year. I have had a lot of VW vans too, in fact I still have one.
I was always fasinated with the horiZontally opposed engine design.
That is waht drew me to BMW motorcycles.
 
Yep.
1973 Superbeetle, in that oh so special kelly green w/tan interior. It was a hoot to drive for a crazed 16 year old. I learned that if you connected various dangling wires hanging around the fan belt the car might sometimes start. She died a slow death in our hands.
 
My first car was a '73 super as well. Mine way that sky-blue colour, ar at least was inside the doors. The P.O. had painted it a really RIPPING shade of dark metallic blue, quite similar to a shade you can get on the new beetle oddly enough. Mine had a few problems here and there, but the last week of its life it ran REALLY well! Then I hydroplaned it into the ass-end of a '76 Monte Carlo at 40 mph. Long story how it all happened but I wated until the last minute and flicked the wheel to the left and put the empty passenger side into the impact. The passenger door was right next to my face and the passenger seat was behind the one I was sitting in!
 
Had a '73 Super. It was a major dog. They changed the motor, or emissions gear that year, and it wouldn't get out of it's own way. Kept it one year, but did sell it for $100 less than I paid for it.
 
Back in 1976

my folks gave me the down payment on a 75 Super Beetle for graduation. It was gold, with the de-luxe interior including cocoa matts on the floor. Loved that car. I could drive with most of my head sticking out of the sunroof (I'm 6'3") and did so much of the time.
Had an 8 track player and I went to Remes Auto and bought some two way box speakers and lots of extra wire - I was popular at parties cuz I could put the speaks on the top of the car and play our jams.
My step-mom used to screw up the fuel injection every time she drove it ("No, you don't have to pump the pedal when you start it - really!") and it would cost me $35 bucks to get it fixed.
That was big money for an 18 year old in 1976.
Car was sold when I got a wild hair and took off for Arizona the next year on my Honda 750.

ps - thanks kbasa for meddling and putting this up!
 
I'm in the bug club!

My second car was a '49 VW split window beetle. It had semifores for turn signals, and a whopping 30 hp motor that would get into 3rd going downhill with a tailwind.

I have regretted many times that I don't still have it. I didn't realize at the time ('69) how rare it was; I think it was the first year that the VW was imported into the US.

Coulda shoulda woulda
 
i still have my 1973 bus. (3rd owner.) nothing quite like it really. spacious inside, nice and slow, and when it gets cold, the exhaust can be vented into the cabin to warm me up! mmmm, im warm....and sleepy. ;)
 
I had a 66 bug. The engine was punched out to over 1800cc. The heads were worked, a Judson supercharger and a Holly Bug spray. It went 110 MPH and got 12 MPG.
 
VW Reminiscing

My first VW was a 1967 dark blue beetle I bought in 1970. It had been used by a rural mail carrier to carry the mail (southern Iowa)
and had 180,000 miles on it.
I joined the USAF in 1972 and drove the beetle to Wichita Falls,Texas where I was in tech school. While there, the oil cooler seals (under the fan shroud) went out, and I took it into a gas station/ VW repair shop near the AF base that always had a couple of Beetle Drag cars parked in front. The mechanic assured me he could have it fixed while I waited. Sceptical, I said go ahead.
Starting from the time he rolled it into the garage until he rolled it back out, it was done in 19 minutes. This job required total removal of the engine from the car, removal of the generator, and partial disassembly of the engine "tin".
I was really amazed that a major repair could be accomplished so easily. From that time I have been so impressed at the elegance and simplicity of the design of the air cooled VW's. I also determined to develop my own mechanical skills, although I have a long way to go to match the level of competence I saw that day.
I drove that Beetle until it had 235,000 miles on it and sold it for $200. I have since owned several others including a Ghia convertible, a super Beetle, and two busses. I don't presently have one, but who knows what the future may hold?
 
I could drive with most of my head sticking out of the sunroof (I'm 6'3") and did so much of the time.

I have trouble with that one since I'm 6'4" and had enough headroom in my Super to wear a fedora. UNless you were sitting on something!:D

OTOH, my 2002 GTI has a nifty ratchet-lever seat height adjustment that allows me to get my head out the roof!
 
Beetle/Bug

Seems to be a lot of confusion about Beetles and Bugs.
My sister bought a brand new and I think first of its kind, Karmann Ghia in 1955 or 1956. This was a volkswagen with an Italian made sporty body which vaguely resembled a "Beetle". From the dealer it was $2500 and used ones were selling in Chicago for $3500 to $5000 in Los Angeles. Dealers were bound by Germany to sell at their price but demand was so high you could sell one for nearly twice what you paid for it.
The standard Volkswagen was called a Bug.
I never heard of a "Super Beetle". Unless they are talking about the new ones being made now.
Those Beetles/Bugs were great little cars. My sister's Ghia had a manifold heater and air passing over the manifold was directed into the car. Didn't work worth a darn in our Michigan winters.
When it snowed hard the snow would come right into the car through the defrosters and you would have a small blizzard inside the car while driving down the road.
My sister's Ghia got about forty five miles per gallon and you could drive it 70 MPH all day long and be comfortable.
Both models were great in the snow. Definitely the "People's Car".
 
As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I bought a BMW ('75 R60/6) was that I felt familiar with the engine as it was so similiar to a aircooled VW engine. I've had a '58, '63, '64, '67, '76, as well as a '74 Karmann Ghia. I never owned a new one, but I helped my daughter get a New Beetle a couple of years ago. They are nice cars, and they do evoke some of the Beetle mystique when driving them, although they are a totally different type of car. The '58 had a fabric sunroof. You could go down a forest road sitting up on the roof with the choke pulled out and drive with your feet on the steering wheel...what fun!
 
Re: VW Reminiscing

GS Tom said:
My first VW was a 1967 dark blue beetle I bought in 1970.

Woah. My first car was exactly like that: dark blue '67 VW beetle.

Mine had a Holley BugSpray, hi lift rockers, a quietpack exhaust and the Bosch .009 exhaust.

That crappy old fuel line gave up on me and the car caught fire and burned. I was heartbroken.

Super Beetles, to answer the question above, were an evolution of the standard beetle (or Type 1 as VW called them). VW ditched the torsion bar front end and went with a McPherson strut. They're easy to recognize by their curved windshields.

They still had lousy heat. :)
 
YESSIR I Did

I see quite a few of us have had a beetle or Volkswagon at some time. I have had a 63 bug and a 74 beetle, but most of my VW memories were from the fact that my Dad was the Parts Manager of a Volkswagon Dealership for a good number of years. During that time our family had about every model offered because the Dealership furnished him with a car. I can remember even the pickup truck model and camper we used on vacations. I really liked the fastbacks and squarebacks but the Ghia's were fun as well. What I liked the most was when he would be allowed to keep one of the new Porsche's for a while! To bad I wasn't old enough to drive. Anyway I still have the memories. :bliss
 
My lifelong love of "German things mechanical" started with a '60 "Kombi"* 21 (?) window, sunroof bus that my family picked up at the factory on Euro delivery prior to touring Europe in it when I was 8.

We kept it til 72. We added a '68 bug (New $1700, IIRC) in which I learned to drive and once I graduated High School, I had four throughout college. '71, '68, '64, and '72.

With me, it's far from over. Currently own a R60/5, a '69 912, and my daily driver, a '79 911SC. My brother has it bad as well. Currently owns a R75/5, and four buses including a rare crew cab truck and an extemely rare double door Westfalia.

*"Kombi" was a rare Euro bus with a special removable camping outfit by Westfalia that could be interchanged with a "9 passenger" seating arrangement.
 
More thoughts

The old beetle, or Type 1, or 'sedan' as I've seen some literature refer to it as, was never officially called the Beetle or Bug except for the Super Beetle. Sedan BTW does not mean four doors, but rather is a body-style type that most four-door cars just happen to be. But of course the modern usage has changed the definition a bit.

The heaters were indeed bad. I recall my stepmother's bug, a '72 I think, in which I was driven to school many times and I found that I was comfortable with my foot resting against the floor vent. It melted vent-grill marks into my shoe but I still froze above the knee. J.C. Whitney used to offer an electric fan kit that could be retrofitted to move the heat through the pipes. It was on my shopping list of dream stuff for that car until I totalled it in a hydroplaning accident at the beginning of 12th grade.

I also remember the time I locked my keys in it at school. Our security guy kept his Slim Jim at home and I had to wait 45 minutes for him to go get it. From then on I left the vent windows unlocked just in case. I was the only person in my high school with long enough forearms to reach in through the vent window, make the 90-degree elbow bend and be able to reach the door lock knob. I have of course learned since then not to leave my keys in the car. With many modern types you can't unless you really try to.

I've heard that English is not the only language in which the car is made fun of. In Germany they call it the Kaefer, which means beetle or bug. I heard a German refer to a soft-topped Karmann Ghia as a Kafer Karmann Cabrio once. In Norway the car was referred to as the Elk's Lip. I don't know why or how to say that in Norwegian.

And only Freud would understand the odd fascination people had with the car's back end. :)
 
Sitting?? Who mentioned sitting?

My method of driving with my head out the sunroof did not involve sitting. It was more holding the steering wheel with both hands and a half standing/crouching position.
The seat was in the back of my calves. Worked great and as a young man I could hold that position for long periods of time.
Funny, I don't remember being unhappy with the heat situation in the car. I had always heard they had lousy heat, maybe I had a defective one....
 
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