In Mexico, you literally see Beetles being fixed EVERYWHERE.

Myself, I’d love a Thing. Or even better, a Schwimmwagen, LOL.

The Fiat 128 is FWD.

I owned several serially in the late 80’s along with a Karmann Ghia. With some minor modifications, they were great fun to drive.

The brakes generally don’t get hot but if you drive hard and do repeated hard stops they will overheat and fade away. I had this problem in Naples, Italy with my 1972 Super. That car was the same as a ‘73 in the USA. Curved windshield, first year. However it only had a 1200cc 40HP engine and the lower gears. Didn’t have the big bumpers either.

Anyhow in Naples we would run ~100 kph and then have to stand on the brakes because around the next blind tunnel curve traffic would be stopped. With 2-3 people inside the Beetle the brakes would overheat after 3-4 hard stops.

Under the ‘65 Beetle I brought back I put the ‘69 IRS chassis and four wheel disc brakes for this reason. Also because on three different swing-axle vehicles I drove there that tried to tuck under hard maneuvering. I wanted the old looks but the newer suspension.

twotone: In the 1970’s I owned Fiat 128s, Datsun 210s and Opel Kadetts BECAUSE they were RWD.

Weren’t ALL of the Fiat 128 cars FWD? I thought it was the Fiat 131 cars that were RWD. Just asking…

moedaman: I owned a ‘66 Beetle, and ‘75 and ‘81 microbuses. And while they were all fun, the lack of a good heating system just killed them. Of course I bought all of them after they were all 8+ years old.

The heat REALLY does work. Well. Until the weather gets below 25 degrees or so. However for all it’s simplicity it is easy for the system to fail to function. All it takes is a loose ventilation hose or a rusty heater channel (rocker panel) or broken cable or missing thermostat. I have a friend with a ‘78 VW camper like my Corvair powered Westfalia. It also made good heat down to below freezing when she first bought the van but once the van was in TN for a winter or two a double walled exhaust pipe had the outer layer rust off and the heat diminished considerably. Went from hot heat to warm heat.

RogerB34: ‘70 was the last good year of VW Bugs.The Bug shown is rather pathetic and abused version of the late 60’s.

No, that is definitely a flat windshield Super Beetle with MacPherson struts. That makes it a ‘70-’72 in the USA. Might be a ‘69 overseas somewhere. The US models were generally one year behind on styling and we usually didn’t get any of the go fast goodies like disc brakes or dual carbs. Still getting short changed today with the Euro vs US versions I think by many car makers.

I have owned about 5 Beetles over the years – standard and Super. My current (and likely last) Beetle is a ‘65 I bought in Italy while stationed there. It is a ‘65 Beetle originally sold in the western part of my state! I three real gripes about the Beetles. They were noisy inside. Being addressed during my resto. They were slow on the hills. Don’t want to drag race or cruise at 100 mph. Just don’t want to climb hills in 3rd gear. To address this I have installed and run for several thousand miles a Type IV 2.0L engine. A solid 25 mpg no matter what I haul or tow behind me. It definitely doubles the original power.

This engine was found in the Porsche 914 tuned for about 95 HP with different cam, heads and exhaust. In the bus it came with different lower compression heads, small valves and really mild cam. That version made 67 HP but alot more torque. I’m aiming at about 80-90HP.

If I can match the performance of my 90HP mid-80s VW GTI ‘vert I would be happy. Also going to build up a Gene Berg 5-speed for the Beetle as well.

Lastly was the brakes. Didn’t like them fading when hot or working poorly when they were wet. Also addressed by upgrading to disc brakes all the way around with a dual master cylinder. Car also got the ‘69 chassis with better suspension and will get swaybars to boot and has been lowered in the front until it sits flat with the rear. Dropped spindles. The goal is to look stock but function much, much better.

All of my Beetles were reliable as anything I ever owned but they did need more adjustments and maintenance (frequent oil changes, adjust the brakes and valves among others). I love working on them. They are “alive” and respond to an experienced mechanic well. I have fixed them in all sorts of odd places when I tried to get the very last miles out of worn parts. If I addressed wear problems when I first noticed the problem with new QUALITY parts (i.e. not just any new part from a catalog selling low quality junk – retailers you know who you are!) then the car was like new again and reliable.

I still really like the look of a factory stock Beetle with good chrome and paint if none of the pieces are missing or damaged. A beat up Beetle can get really ugly fast to me. Must be something about the awkward shape.

The cars (any brand) from this era are very desirable to me b/c they can be fixed easily and cheaply and still deliver good service and reasonable comfort with minor updates (a/c, noise control, suspension updates). The real challenge is finding parts for some brands and keeping the steel termites away.

I’d happily drive cars like this if I could buy one new with a/c and with rust proofing and some minor safety upgrades.

Have several ideas that I am pondering that might lead me to buy another project Beetle after this one is complete. Perhaps a Hebmueller replica. Perhaps a full length ragtop sunroof (I added a shorty ‘57 sunroof to mine). Perhaps some sort of hatchback Beetle with a suitcase VW motor. Stock from the outside, big hatchback ala new Beetle. Or perhaps stretching a Beetle about 6 inches in the wheelbase and slanting the windshield back and with a longer slope on the rear end and the front hood. Put the added length into the rear leg room and the front trunk.

My friend’s younger brother, working underneath his Beetle, had the rear end slip off jackstands and land on top of him. He screamed and whined, but just ended up being bruised and sore (and embarrassed).

Also, as a young teenager, as I perused through the JC Whitney catalogs, it appeared as though you could buy all the parts to assemble an entirely new Beetle. Doors, body panels, rebuilt motors, you name it.

Europeans even got the front disc treatment.

These comparos of older economy cars are super cool. I’d love to see more of these for other generations of cars ’70’s muscle cars, or something. But, maybe you’d have to stick to older cars found in the Eugene area ;-)

I owned both a ‘70 Maverick and a ‘71 Super Beetle (at different times). Even though Ford marketed the Mav as a VW alternative, really they are such different cars it is hard to rank them one against the other. The Ford had a real trunk (a pretty decent sized one actually), a real heater, a real automatic trans and could seat 5 in a pinch. Mine also had a carburetor that resolutely refused to idle no matter what, and I eventually burned out said auto trans due to having to rev the engine in neutral at stop lights to keep from stalling, then dropping it suddenly into gear on green. My Beetle had the semi-auto setup which, contrary to reputation is very reliable once it is set up properly. Various other things broke on the Bug but of the two, it is the one I would like to have back. There is something refreshingly honest, straightforward and, dammit, MECHANICAL about a Bug.

I remember the Toyota Corona ad claiming the same acceleration number. It had a 1900cc engine as I recall. Where are all those Corona’s now? Never see one, nor Opels or Fiats. Working on “furrin” cars to pay my college expenses, there are good reasons why old VW’s are still around and virtually no Austin-MG, Fiat, Opel, Renault or Simca sedans still on the road. An electric-shifted semi-automatic Simca is still the strangest one I ever repaired.

Just like you, print car mags back then heaped praise on cars that may have performed better than VW’s when new, but didnt last. C&D at least panned the Kadette, and paid dearly for it in lost GM ad revenue.

Thanks for the correction. I agree with you; I liked my 1200 better too, even if it was slower. It felt more organic.

There isn’t; it’s a reflection of the grass outside.

My first guess is that picture is the author’s best shot an honest representation of what so many Bug interiors look like — grass growing right through the floorboards. The Bug I bought off of eBay sure suffered from this (despite anything the seller claimed).

Those floors (along with the battery trays and heater channels) did a disappearing act at the first sight of salt covered roads. Just add salt, and there went the floors and the heat…

Otherwise, I found the bug to be one of the most fun cars I have ever owned. I couldn’t help but fall in love with the simplicity of it all. The Bug is about essentials, and nothing else. Too cool.

It wasn’t like the old ones. It had factory air, for one thing. But I must admit driving the thing was like meeting that girl you were crazy about in high school who married someone else. You wonder what you were thinking then.

Yes, it was cramped, etc. etc. What put me off most of all was the way it drove. No power, awful handling, not bad ride. But what WAS I thinking? I knew all that.

Groan

Regarding the style, what bothers me more than the shnoz is the vents behind the rear windows, which I think were introduced in ‘68. They did a number on the artistic integrity.

If that wasn’t painful enough, they gave the colors clever “youth market” names. For one agonizing example, the bright green metallic was dubbed “Anti-Establish Mint.” I am not making this up.