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My daughter is considering a first car. She can drive a stick and likes the old VW bugs.
Are they still a good idea? Can people still fix them, find parts? Are they safe enough, green enough?
Since the "new" bug is now pretty old, maybe that would be a better idea.
Any thoughts or experience would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
mj
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Old bugs lack modern safety features.
New bug has them!
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We had a 2004 New beetle too. It had some electrical quirks, like all VW's do, but the one thing it had over the '69 was air conditioning.
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I think VW bugs are still manufactured in Mexico. Have you seen one in good repair recently? I had a VW squareback awhile back. It was relatively easy to maintain: adjust the valves, change the oil, and tune it up was relatively easy. For me working on it was a form of therapy.
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They have become somewhat of a collectable item. We stopped to look at a convertible that was for sale on the side of the road and they were asking $8k! It probably didn't cost more than $2k new.
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Yes, nice old air-cooled VWs are getting hard to find and a good one won't be cheap unless you're really lucky in finding one. There's no comparison with the safety features in late model cars. I sold my '66 bug because, after 20+ years without a garage, the elements got the best of it. It was a fun car to drive.
California's northern coast
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My first car was a '67 Beetle I paid $750 for it in 1978. I knew that thing
inside and out, you about had to know because it was always needing
something adjusted or tinkered with. I'm not saying that was a bad thing
I wish I still had it. When I got it had 104K miles on it and when I traded
it in in 1984 it had 167K miles on it. I got a wild hair about 10 years ago
and bought primo '67 Beetle to drive back and forth to work. That didn't
go so well, after driving a modern vehicle for so long it was very hard to
get used to an old Beetle again. 18 wheelers would go by you and it felt
like you moved over a foot. Don't get wrong if I ever find a fully restored
one and I have the extra cash I wouldn't be above buying it. They're
sort of an attachment once you've had you'll always remember it.
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Old bugs are definitely fun. To me, old is 1967 and older, but that's just my preference for the ease of tuning VW motors without pollution controls etc. Parts are no problem. Mechanics are probably not a problem.
But I probably wouldn't recommend one as a first car if safety is a concern; they are definitely not very crash worthy. Besides that, owning a vintage Bug is as much a hobby as a way to get around. How much does your daughter want to learn about fixing her own car? One VW ritual is crawling underneath and adjusting the valves every 3000 miles or so.
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Funny. I was following a guy in an old Beetle yesterday who couldn't or wouldn't get the car up to the posted speed limit on the road (45 to 50 MPH depending on the section of road), but was happy to stay in the left lane belching fuel fumes. Reminded me that when I lived in the Midwest, there were two kinds of Volkswagen cars...new and rusted.
