1967 Volkswagen Squareback

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

What kind of world is this, where nearly rust-free Squarebacks— and that’s not a combination of words you hear often— survive for more than 40 years and then get eaten by the same crusher that consumes ’91 Hyundai Excels?

The original owner of this Volks paid his or her Village of Winfield vehicle tax, and the sticker survived all these years. A little research suggests that Winfield is in Illinois, although there is a little town named Winfield 50 miles or so to the east of this Denver junkyard.

The engine and many engine accessories are still waiting for extraction. Let’s hope that someone rescues these parts before The Crusher calls for this car.






Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Sweetpea82 Sweetpea82 on Dec 01, 2010

    Where is this car? I want to save it... or at least parts of it. FYI Master Cylinder isn't too bad to replace (replaced mine 2 weeks back). The heater does suck.. Never wish a crushing on a beautiful VW Squareback!

  • Couper Couper on Dec 01, 2010

    let's hope for an early christmas miracle in that someone saw it here, rescued it or told another body and it's headed for a rebirth...

  • MaintenanceCosts E34 535i may be, for my money, the most desirable BMW ever built. (It's either it or the E34 M5.) Skeptical of these mods but they might be worth undoing.
  • Arthur Dailey What a load of cow patties from fat cat politicians, swilling at the trough of their rich backers. Business is all for `free markets` when it benefits them. But are very quick to hold their hands out for government tax credits, tax breaks or government contracts. And business executives are unwilling to limit their power over their workers. Business executives are trained to `divide and conquer` by pitting workers against each other for raises or promotions. As for the fat cat politicians what about legislating a living wage, so workers don't have to worry about holding down multiple jobs or begging for raises? And what about actually criminally charging those who hire people who are not legally illegible to work? Remember that it is business interests who regularly lobby for greater immigration. If you are a good and fair employer, your workers will never feel the need to speak to a union. And if you are not a good employer, then hopefully 'you get the union that you deserve'.
  • 28-Cars-Later Finally, something possibly maybe worth buying.
  • EBFlex The simple fact is very small and cheap ICE vehicles have a range thats longer than all EVs. That is the bar that needs met. And EVs cannot meet that.Of course range matters. But that's one element of many that make EVs completely ineffective at replacing ICE vehicles.
  • Wolfwagen I like the exterior mods short of the satellite dish. Put a normal interior in it and they could have sold it as some sci-fi movie trim
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