Ugly American Cars (My Vanity Rant)

count-your-change | 9/9/2012 | count-your-change

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It’s not as bad as the old banana shaped Birds. whoa...gives me shivers!

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I owned several of the Bugs and a Karmen Ghia. Most reliable machines I ever owned. Not terribly comfortable but utterly dependable. When I got stuck in the snow I put the car in 1st gear and got out to stand on the rear bumper for added traction.

And when battery died I could give it a push and hurry around to jump in.

Would that there were something like that available today.
Cheap, reliable, no frills.

[bert]

The worst thing about an old VW bug was passing. When you passed someone they would speed up because they were offended by the effort to pass.

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That and hitting their airstream was like hitting a wall.

Get in the left lane with the gas pedal mashed and you might slowly creep around someone. Big trucks? forget it! I'd usually try to stay in the vacuum behind a big trailer and let it drag me along.
Dangerous to a degree but I could stop quicker than the trailer.

“...they were offended by the effort to pass.”

I challenged such a driver at a stop light to a drag race. He laughed and shot away, far away ahead of me. I passed him while he was having a serious discussion with a state trooper.