Bug bites the dust - Mex factory makes last VW classic

New York Daily News ^ | July 31 | Dave Goldiner

[CWOJackson]

Not really. I was watching reruns of the last Reform Party Convention. Benny Hills is far too serious compared to that.

[jjbrouwer]

Heh heh.

The fatties come from the North of England. When the race for the deckchairs begins they can't get there as quickly as the sneaky Germans.

[sheik yerbouty]

Who are they?

[goldstategop]

A search on Google should turn them up.

[Kenny Bunk]

Of course the VW had heat. You had to have good heater cables and boxes, and be moving. Northern States and Canada Beetles had a GASOLINE Heater, which turned the car into a pizza oven hot enough to start melting rubber boots, in about 3 minutes.

There also was a very effective Swamp Cooler AC unit that sort of hooked to a window.

[Dave Elias]

Hate to burst your bubble, but the Beetle is not even the most popular VW of all time. On 25th June last year, the VW Golf surpassed this record and continues to top it by about 1 million units a year. That doesn't include by the way the Golf derivatives (New Beetle, Skoda, Seat, Audi A3, Audi TT, VW Jetta etc).

One could argue this was not the same car. However that also hold true for the Beetle, for which the latest cars bore only a superficial likeness to the Porsche's original.

In terms of nameplates, the Toyota Corolla is number one, although that car has gone through completely differnt stages of design philosphy (Rear-drive, to Front Drive etc) so in my book it is not an evolution of design in the same way as the Golf and Beetle were.

[goldstategop]

I'd like to upgrade my New Beetle to single turbo injection, V6 engine, 4motion all wheel drive. The drawback is its rather pricey. <sigh

[goldstategop]

I was talking about the Classic Beetle. The New Beetle is basically a modified Golf since its based on the Mark IV Audi TT platform. Which is ironic since the Classic Beetle was the original inspiration for the Audi 356! In passing, its true the Golf has become for VW what the Beetle was 30 years ago. Its the number one selling hatchback in the world outside the United States and whatever VW's problems are here, the company is still the #1 automaker in Europe.

[Woodman]

Did you see this one? http://www.vwrestoration.com/sale/77silver.htm A 1977 with 1,100 mile, never been registered. $15,000, I'm thinking it might be worth it...

[Dave Elias]

Porsche 356 mate! Not Audi. Audi together with DKW, NSU and Horsch formed Auto-Union which had the familiar four linked rings as it's logo. You are quite right though, the Porsche 356 is little more than a warmed over Beetle (they weren't very fast even in their day)

A little known fact is that Ferdinand Porsche was not the innovator he may seem. The design for the KDF Wagen (beetle) was basically stolen from Tatra or more specifically their chief engineer, Hans Ledwinka.

[Mackey]

"Punch Buggy?"

In the Northwest we called it "Slug Bug." See a Beetle, yell "Slug Bug!" and smack your seat mate. Great fun!

I had a faded red '62 Beetle in 1972. It was by far the slowest vehicle I have ever owned. I threw away the air cleaner and removed the baffles from the muffler tips and was able to boost its top speed by about 3 mph.