Volkswagen Appreciation Thread.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well for Mrs.Phlosphr and I this is our first German engineered automobile. We just purchased a 2003 Jetta GLI . It is amazing, I have never driven a car with 6 speeds. It corners not like it is on rails, but more like it is a part of the road itself. The rear wheels are tortioned in so when you corner it pushes the center of the car down, making it easier…

Leather interior, and one of the best parts about it is the smell. Most cars have a new car smell…nope this one smells like a volkswagen :slight_smile:

Any other VW groupies, lovers, or fanatical worshipers out there in the teeming millions…

One question, are volkswagens as popular in Europe as they are here in the US. I love our new baby. [sub]Too bad Mrs.Phlosphr doesn’t let me drive it very often[/sub]

2

Well, obviously the cornering has been improved somewhere along the line since 81, not that I have any real complaints about my Rabbit, given how much I paid for it. :stuck_out_tongue:

3

That is the same exact car we are thinking about getting! What color? If you say black on black I will be seriously freaked out…

4

Nope we did galactic blue and black leather interior. It is by far the nicest vehicle I have ever driven! When you are cruising around at a comfortable 75mph just drop it into 6th and your doing 95, just like that. Granted we didn’t get it for the speed, we got it for the reliability and handling, and the price.

5

Any affection I had for VW went out the window when the co-opted the ELO song “Mr. Blue Sky” for their commercials. Sigh, I used to really love that song…

6

Ahh… Volkswagen, the People’s Car. I don’t own a VW. I am not a “car freak” to any degree, I can just barely figure out how to put oil and wiper fluid in my car. I’ve had my license for about 5 months and the only car I’ve ever driven is my little blue Pontiac Sunbird. But god, how I dream of Volkswagens. My sister has a 1990 silver 2-door Fox. His name is Noel. He has been through so much crap, it’s hard to believe he’s still intact, but he functions wonderfully. He was almost submerged in a flood a good ways back (when he belonged to my uncle), and when my sister went to install a new stereo, the radio compartment was caked inside with mud. But Noel runs fine. He’s lovely. My dad, for awhile, had an '89 white 4-door Fox. His name was Harvey. He’s a little broken down as of late, but considering he’s got over 220,000 miles on him… that’s okay.

So I don’t own a VW. But I do so adore them. Every time I see one I just can’t help but stare… I loved the original Beetles since I was a kid, and when they came out with the new ones, I was… well, excessively excited. And now the New Beetle convertible? I saw a commercial for these babies and slmost cried. Squealing, bouncing up and down on the sofa going, “Aaaaahhhhh!!! It’s sooooo CUTE!!!”

My dream car is a New Beetle (preferably convertible), white, with big black cow-spots all over it. And a fluffy orange interior. Like shag carpeting fluffy. And an automatic transmission because I am terrified at the thought of learning standard. I actually saw a cow-spotted New Beetle a little over a year ago in Baltimore when I was visting my mother’s family, and I think my aunt must have thought I lost my mind. I shrieked, I whimpered, I stared, I gasped and went, “Oh my god, that’s my car, that’s MY CAR!!!” I want one. I sooooo want one.

Unfortunately, I’m poor. So unless (and by that I mean unTIL, optimism, you know) I land that big record deal and have a platinum album soon, my dream car is out of reach. So I am content and happy with my little Pontiac, but I shall always dream of Volkswagens…

7

I want a Jetta sooo bad. I test drove a few and they were beautiful! They drove so smoothly and nicely. Once I buy one, I will never go back.

8

Oops…I guess I was wrong. The one we are thinking about getting is a GLS, not a GLI. We drove a GLI though, a red one. We are thinking about getting a GLS with the 1.8 liter turbo - black with a black leather interior.

9

I’ve never been a big fan of VWs. That’s not to say they’re not well engineered and consturcted cars. The fact that they are well made is attested by the fact that they are notoriously hard to kill. My college girlfriend’s Golf was a monument to this. She maintained it so so poorly I’m amazed the thing continued to run, much less run well.

That being said, I don’t care for them. My experience lies solely with Golfs and Jetta’s into the mid-90s; so I’m willing to concede that they may have solved the problems I personally experienced with them.

First, on the standard transmissions, I utterly detest the fact that Reverse is right next to first gear, rather than conveniently down and to the right as in most American standards.

Second, VWs all seem to be engineered for people of a certain height, not to exceed 5’10". Being 6’1", I’ve always found my head pressed (lightly) directly against the roof of the car. Taht’s really uncomfortable after a while.

I hope these have both changed, as I like their engineering. I just hate riding in what feels like a clown car.

10

I am 5’11" and my husband is over 6’, and we both fit comfortably in our '97 Passat. The Passats are a little bigger than the Jettas, though. I have had my heart set on a VW forever and last fall we finally got this one, dark blue with tan leather interior. I love the heated seats in this cold weather!

The trunk is suprisingly big, and we can easily put one or both back seats down and it is amazing how much room we have. I love how this car handles, it is a mid-size car that drives like a little car. It is the perfect size for me!

I have to come up with a name for it yet, it’s not right for this car not to be named. Any good ideas?

11

What makes right and down more convenient than left and up for reverse? Sure, if you drive the thing infrequently, you’ll shove it into 4th, begin releasing the clutch, curse when you stall hard, etc. But if you drive it with any frequency it becomes second nature.

Now, there is a downside to the setup, at least on some models (like, say, mine). If the shift linkage gets sloppy enough, the lockout that prevents you from shifting into reverse without depressing the shift lever also prevents you from getting into 1st. For a long time I drove my Rabbit that way, bypassing the lockout, fishing for 1st gear and hoping not to get reverse, or just starting in 2nd (not really a big deal for a diesel anyways). Eventually I broke down and got the shift kit with all the linkage bushings, but I viewed the shifting difficulties as a nice anti-theft device. Not that I have any idea who’d want to steal the 22 year old beater instead of the new car beside it.

Sadly, my poor Jack (Jack Rabbit…I know, lame joke, but it makes me smile) has a nasty case of skin cancer, most prominently on the top of front right fender. It’s only a matter of a couple years before the strut tower becomes seperated from the rest of the body and the car ceases to be roadworthy. :frowning: Of course, at that point we take it out to the farm, lop off the roof with an acetylene torch, rig some strap iron to hold the strut in place, and use it to boot around the fields. :slight_smile:

12

Fritzie. She is German, after all. :slight_smile:

13

I’m old school Vdub. I had two of them. My brother had two. His first wife had one. Three of our family “second” cars were VW’s, and my grandfather had one too.

Fast forward to 2002. Bro’s second wife gets a new Beetle. And yes, it has that great smell. Nothing like it. It’s a cool car, but that smell puts it over the top.

14

I’ve had a bunch of VWs - 2 rabbits, a Westfalia Vanagon, and 2 Foxes. Loved every one of them - all but the 86 Fox had over 200,000 miles and still running fine when I got rid of them.

My first Rabbit - 1978, I think - had roughly 275000 miles on it and was still running perfectly fine when I parked it at the top of a horseshoe driveway, ran into the house for a minute, and somehow the brake slipped, causing the car to coast forward and take a dive off an embankment. To this day I believe the car committed suicide aver overhearing that I was thinking of replacing it.

My husband has had his 1988 Fox since 1989. I just bought a Saturn last week, but I’m keeping the 86 Fox in the garage just in case. I just had to replace it as it was getting a little too unreliable about starting at 3am in neighborhoods that I didn’t want to be in with a non-starting car at 3am. Or if AnartesJB wants to come out to the west coast, she can have it. If it would make it back to PA.

15

I got a 2002 Cabrio (marlin blue, beige leather) last year, and I love it. It’s a fine car with the top up, and a great car with the top down.

16

My first car of my own was a 1971 Super Beetle with the automatic stick shift. Got it in 1975 with 59K miles on it, and it died at the end of 1982 with 156K miles on it. It was a fun little car.

17

Velma - check the keys. There’s probably some sort of little letter or letter-number combo on them somewhere that will give you a name hint (at least there were on all ours). My sister was naming hers Noel anyways because she’s obsessed with Noel Gallagher of Oasis, but, on each of her keys there is a little serial number “2NL”. To Noel! Perfection. My dad’s car was Harvey because on the keys is an “HV”, and my little Pontiac is Eve – her keys have an “E” on them, plus she’s my first car. Beyond that, instinct, baby, whatever feels right. A German name would be cool, but maybe something Portuguese as well, since a lot of VWs are (were? maybe the newer ones aren’t) manufactured in Brazil. (I know Noel was.)

18

My first car was a 1971 Super Beetle that was simply invulnerable and the only time I ever had a problem was with the fuel pump.

It took me about five minutes to remove it (it sits right in front of you when you open the hood) and a few minutes more to clean the sludge out of it. I was on my way in under half an hour.

I owned a Rabbit diesel for some time and the only problem I had was remembering that it occasionally needed refuelling.

Since we need a car that gets 85 mpg I’m now in the market for a good used Golf or Jetta diesel.

19

2002 Passat driver here. I love it. It’s like having a BMW or Benz for about half the money.

20

My first car was a Golf, then I had a Jetta. Both were fantastic cars, both deisel and apparently allergic to filling stations.
The fuel consumption was fantastic. I could cross the country twice on a single fill.
(I live in a small country)
The size of the boot in the Jetta was so ridiculoulsy large I had occasion to climb into it one day to reach something that had rolled to the back and I realised that it was probably much the same size as my bathroom.

I had decided that one day I would buy a VW Corrado, but they were discontinued. Bum, most upsetting.