# Were the engines of the old Volkswagen Beatles (Käfer) located in the front or the back? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2014, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169 "2014-10-02T09:55:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/41 "2014-10-03T14:51:14Z")
I had a '63 Beetle that I drove in the US as a teenager in the late '80s and early '90s. I kept something absorbent in the car to wipe the windshield with at stops during the winter, as the defroster was completely dysfunctional. No heat to speak of by that point. The locks didn’t work, so friends would often move the car from one spot to another in parking lots around town. The whole electrical system was pretty much shot - my dad built something to plug into the wall to charge the battery overnight. (I had a plug-in car well before they were cool.) Still, it died a lot, but I got pretty proficient at push starts. The stick shift wouldn’t stay in 4th gear unless you held it there. We put a bungee cord in the car and whenever I shifted into 4th, I’d hook the cord to the stick. I’m sure that was safe. Opening the hood to put gas in the car always started a conversation with whoever was at the next pump at the gas station. The side view mirrors were fixed in place in a location that wasn’t really useful to me, so I didn’t really learn to use those mirrors on other cars until I was well into my 30s. It was an entertaining car. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/42 "2014-10-03T15:10:32Z")
They were great in that in 5 minutes you could gut the entire interior of everything but the driver’s seat, and have a small delivery van. or whatever else you wanted, as Ted Bundy discovered :eek: ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/43 "2014-10-03T15:15:35Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > And the battery under the seat where it could, and would, either rot a hole in the floorboard from battery acid and corrosion, or just short out and blow up when some unlucky soul sat in the back seat. > [@sich\_hinaufwinden](#): > > Yep - My brother and I were sitting in the back of one that had the battery short out and set fire to the seat. Of course with it being a 2-door we were trapped in the back for a few seconds (but it felt much longer) until we convinced the guys up front the car was on fire and to get out so we could too. first econo car with heated seats. ---
**Author:** ![D.E.S.K.Top668](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@D.E.S.K.Top668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.E.S.K.Top668)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/44 "2014-10-03T16:30:37Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > They were great in that in 5 minutes you could gut the entire interior of everything but the driver’s seat, and have a small delivery van. > > or whatever else you wanted, as Ted Bundy discovered :eek: In all fairness, didn’t Ted Bundy drive a water cooled VW? A Rabbit, IIRC. To the Op. Until VW started building water cooled cars, most (if not all) of their cars were rear engine. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/45 "2014-10-03T16:32:55Z")
Yes, all of them until the Rabbit were rear engine, air cooled, including the van. ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/46 "2014-10-04T00:27:29Z")
My Dad bought me a 61 Bug with a sunroof in perfect condition in 1970 for 100.00. It was the best car ever made. My little sister was driving it around one night getting stoned with her little buddies and totaled it. The heater was great, there was a little ceramic knob on the floor you turned to open and close the system. The wipers ran off carb vacuum, they were hooked into it with a little rubber hose and worked fine. You could rotate the window washer tubes and drive around squirting your friends, only car I’ve seen with that feature. Learned to drive on ice and snow in it going to empty parking lots and doing every crazy thing a half drunk teenage boy could to wreck it, never did. Had a 10 gallon tank and I bought gas for 13.9 at The Working Man’s Friend, just west of the Elm Fork exit off Hiway 80. Had sex with girls in the front seat a couple of times, preferred my Dad’s Impala for that. 1964 was the last good VW, then they went to shit and stayed there. They were Bugs up til then, I never owned a Beetle. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/47 "2014-10-04T00:42:19Z")
> [@D.E.S.K.Top668](#): > > In all fairness, didn’t Ted Bundy drive a water cooled VW? A Rabbit, IIRC. 68 Beetle. (First year with the plastic dashboard) ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/48 "2014-10-04T01:36:21Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Yes, all of them until the Rabbit were rear engine, air cooled, including the van. and station wagon. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/49 "2014-10-04T03:43:11Z")
As an aside, I once got a '73 Beetle stuck in a tree (All four wheels off the ground) The car was undamaged and there were no injuries. This happened in Nebraska. 😃 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/50 "2014-10-04T04:53:05Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > They were great in that in 5 minutes you could gut the entire interior of everything but the driver’s seat, and have a small delivery van. I used to haul my drum kit in mine. For whatever reason I used to love just driving around in that thing. For days. Maybe it was the bare-bonesness of it. Since the radio never seemed to work the only sound was the engine. I never went anywhere without a quart or two of oil. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford to keep fixing it and had to put it out to pasture. ---
**Author:** ![ernest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c67d28/32.png) [@ernest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ernest)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/51 "2014-10-04T05:04:03Z")
engine being air cooled and being in the back would be unsafe. Also gas tank in front near the head lights electrical system would be unsafe in a accident head on. the 1959 mgm had engine and tubing for air flow to their engines instead of radiators. Think it was the 1979 Porsche I seen with vw engine in it I loved the most. But as to question engine back trunk in front. pinto’s were about the worse cars for blowing up gas tanks were to close to the tail lights one little tap boom. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/52 "2014-10-04T09:54:08Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > As an aside, I once got a '73 Beetle stuck in a tree (All four wheels off the ground) The car was undamaged and there were no injuries. This happened in Nebraska. 😃 🆒 As flat as Nebraska is, I’m impressed! > [@ernest](#): > > pinto’s were about the worse cars for blowing up gas tanks were to close to the tail lights one little tap boom. The problem with the Pinto was that its design was such that in a rear end collision, the gas tank tended to get shoved forward where it would impact and get torn open by bolts that protruded from the rear differential. A gas tank with a great big gaping hole ripped in it doesn’t tend to keep the gasoline inside the tank very well. The filler tube also tended to snap off in a rear end collision, giving the gasoline yet another way to escape from the tank. There were a lot of things Ford could have done to fix the problem. They could have used thicker steel for the gas tank so that it would be much less likely to rupture. They could have covered the bolts so that they wouldn’t be so likely to tear the tank open in an impact. They could have added support beams or stiffeners so that the tank wouldn’t be so likely to get shoved forward by the impact. Instead, they chose to do nothing and just pay the lawsuits, because that was cheaper. At least until they got caught at it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169/53 "2014-10-04T10:18:54Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > The original Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche and prototypes were manufactured by Daimler-Benz. Thanks to Hitler, a factory was built but he then started WW2 so the factory made armaments instead. > > After the war, it was the British who restarted production and eventually the factory was expanded under Karmann and the cars were produced at Wolfsburg until 1978. The Beetle is the most popular car ever made. Beetles continued to be produced in Mexico until 2003. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-engines-of-the-old-volkswagen-beatles-kafer-located-in-the-front-or-the-back/700169.md?page=2)