Bug bites the dust - Mex factory makes last VW classic

New York Daily News ^ | July 31 | Dave Goldiner

[goldstategop]

I paid the equivalent of $1,000 in 1959 dollars for my baby. It has A/C, heating, heated leather seats, Monsoon sound system, leather wrapped steering wheel with power steering, cruise control, ABS brakes, daytime running lights, 16 inch wheels with alloy rims, remote access, and of course a moonroof! And it has a front drive water cooled front engine and a hatchback with fold down seats in the rear in contrast to the Classic's rear drive air cooled rear engine and front baggage compartment. That's my New Beetle deluxe package and it doesn't get any better than that! And with a 2.0L engine that gets 32 miles to the gallons its been super reliable and there's a 10,000 mile interval between scheduled service calls. No we won't miss the Classic Beetle. The new one definitely stands heads and shoulders in technology AND sex appeal over its parent.

[mewzilla]

Does sound like a honey. I will say that I especially like the moonroof. Especially since you can't get anything with a rumble seat :)

[dljordan]

I solved the heat problem in my 67 van by using a Coleman catlytic heater in the back. Unfortunately on a hard turn one day the heater turned over and caught the shag carpet that was covering up the rust holes on fire. Do you know what a fire extinguisher does to shag carpet? It was a mess. Didn't matter though, a couple of months later the engine caught fire (the old number three cylinder problem) and burned the crap out of the engine compartment. Luckily the police who followed me into the parking lot to give me a ticket for pollution put out the fire with THEIR fire extinguishers. Love those VW's.

[jjbrouwer]

One thing I do remember about the old Beatles/Bugs is that when you tried to start them up, they were often very temperamental on rainy days. And in England there are a lot of rainy days.

[plinker's2sense]

The next generation of kids will miss out on the "punch buggy" game while driving with their parents. *lol*

[kAcknor]

I solved the heat problem in my 67 van by using a Coleman catlytic heater in the back.  

kAcknor Sez:

I had a camper version, a '64 that had a gas fire heater in the engine compartment. Smelly, smoky, but it put out heat!! ;)

My first car was a '59 Box Van. Over the years I've owned '64, 74, and a 65 Bus, and 64, 67, and '84 Beatles. Most were owned while in Germany, and the '84 was a Mexican manufactured bug I got brand new. ;) Also owned '82 and '87 Jettas.

Loved the air-cooled engines. They were easy to work on and could be modified to actually produce a bit of horsepower. Take a 1500 CC mother and advandce the timing to about 15 deg BTDC. Ran great! Enough to do 150 Km on the autobahn. However, the heads would last about 6 months, then you just take an hour or so and swap them out.

Cold driving, manually operated handheld cloth defrosters, cracked web casing, convert from 6 to 12 volt, cold 6 month start life changing in the snow, 1/2 hour engine changes, haul the growing family around Volkswagen blues.

Good memories. :)

"bISovbejbe'DI' tImer" (When in doubt, surprise them.)

Have you checked the *bang_list today?

[Libertina]

My first car! I had a 65. Saw it advertised by a banker who liked to work on his cars - sports cars. LOL He asked $600 but for some reason - kindness I believe - sold it to me for $400. :) It drove back and forth across the Washington state for years and was easy to fix. About the only time I had a problem was when I hadn't completely switched over from emergency gas tank to regular tank, ( a cool feature) and it wouldn't start. After I figured it out & turned the switch completely over, off my little car went again. The nice thing about a bug is that if they won't run, you can pick them up and carry them ;) After I finiseded usin the car, I gave it to my brother who painted it red, added aperiscope looking gadget. He gave it rather more of a rough drive, rolling it over numerous times. LOL

[Ed Straker]

My dad fought the Germans in WWII, but he wouldn't drive anything but a Volkswagen. It's what I learned to drive in. Brother-in-law wrecked the red one, so Dad got a blue one, and the brother wrecked that one. Of course, they each lasted about 15 years beforehand...

[jjbrouwer]

They are very forgiving cars and aren't complete without battered fenders.

However, my brother totalled two of ours into a tree, which they didn't forgive. Walked out without a scratch on both occasions.

[HHFi]

Every one of them I ever saw had scorch marks on the back from the engine catching on fire. I never had one, but my best friend's girlfriend (now wife) in college had one. God, how he hated that thing, because he was always having to fix one thing or another on it. He said she wouldn't get rid of it because it was "cute." He wanted to push it off a cliff, which was probably the only way it could've gotten to the top of a cliff.

[rockprof]

My first car was a green 71 super beetle. My most vivid memory of it was how cold it was to ride in the winter because the damn heater never worked. I also almost floated away once trying to drive it over a flooded road. I did learn to drive stick with that car though.

[Libertina]

However, my brother totalled two of ours into a tree
Same tree?

[mewzilla]

I can see why that would be a drawback :) My little bro ended up parting with his because it was just too much of a squeeze (he's really tall). But he still has fond memories of it.

[jjbrouwer]

So true. As someone said earlier Beatles never had the creature comforts.

A kettle full of boiling water to remove the ice and a cloth to wipe the window down inside were essential tools!

[jjbrouwer]

That would have been too perfect. Different trees. He may well have been out of his own tree...

[Range Rover]

Heap scorn on me if you like or be envious...

I still have my last bug - a red 1971 Karmann bodied ragtop with 35k miles from new. My only gripe is that it's that dreaded "Autostick" tranny. Auto clutch. It won't do over 70 on a flat road and it's slow going up hills. After owning a '59, a '63 rollback and a '74 "Sunbug" with a non-leaking sunroof (all of which gave MANY miles of trustworthy service - even floated the '74 across a pond on a bet), the '71 is a pampered family treasure that will see nothing but sunny days and moonlit nights plus the occasional drive-in for the rest of its life.

I get offers every time it's out - some so generous that I wonder if I'm not crazy for keeping it but some things you just can't replace when they've gone.

I don't see where all the heat problems came from. The design was brutally simple - flow air over the exhaust pipe. Sure, the heater boxes rusted if you were up north but they were so easy to fix. All of mine had enough heat to melt a pair of PF Flyers if left in the rear footwell.

The biggest problem with the classic bugs was the floorboards....rust city. Can't tell how many times I heard the "I was just bopping along and suddenly the drivers seat was scraping the pavement" story. With the rest of the car that solid, going totally weak on the floorboard construction made no sense apart from planned obsolesence.

I lost the throttle cable once - snapped just aft of the pedal. Drove it two miles just artfully rowing the stickshift with the motor idling. Some guy in a powder blue bug pulled alongside and yelled "Broken Cable"? We had it rigged with a bent coat hanger in 5 minutes. Drove it that way for a year.

A saying used by Harley fans applied to bugs as well - "If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand".

[Weimdog]

Look, you can now buy that very same car for $15,500!

1959 Beetle
Clean low-mile car with 101,615 original miles. All original interior Gray Blue/Gray. Rare accessory 3 way Moto Meter gauge and rare Cornett Sun visor and right side outside mirror. Wolfsburg Radio. Factory tool bag. Bud vase. Beautiful inside trunk area is all original. Perfect German bumpers. This car is located in New York City in a private collection

Asking $15,500.00

http://www.vwrestoration.com/sales.htm

This one is really nice as well...

1955 Ragtop Beetle
Freshly restored by Humberto Lapa. Awesome paint. WCCR interior. Optional gas guage. Blaupunkt radio works. Euro headlight glass. All correct fenders and hoods. Factory sunroof. Body-off restoration. The engine was built with a NOS engine case, NOS heads, pistons and cylinders, cam and crankshaft.. .
Asking $35,000.00

The prices for the 21 window microbuses are going through the roof in the collectors market as well.

[MHGinTN]

My first Beetle was a 67. I owned a 69 also. Had two squarebackes (powder blue and an orange one). If the Beetle is now extinct from production, when did the Squareback go out? ... And how difficult would it be to go to Mexico and buy a Beetle, then drive it back to Tennessee? (Like, what would it cost in Dollars and what import duty would be stacked on it if I was driving it or it was purchased used?