As others have pointed out, the VW engine was not well engineered-but in compensation, a rebuilt VW engine was pretty cheap, and easy to swap out. The amazing thing was the body-in an era when body-on-chassis American cars rattled ands shook, the VW was tight as a drum. Plus, the VW handled well-it was not hampered by a Detroit-marshmallow suspension. It represented all of the things that Detroit was againsts-so it (the VW) became popular. When the Japanese showed up, they rapidly outpaced the VW-their designes were much more modern, and the engines smoother and MUCH quieter-the net result was thatVW was almost bankrupt, by the mid-1970’s. VW finally modernized their cars (ditching the air-cooled engines), but it is amazing that an early 1930’s design lasted so long in production.
The Inflation Calculator, which uses the federal government’s Consumer Price Index.
Maybe this ought to be a new thread (and feel free to post one!). I always wonder about CPI indices. I have what people call “expendable/disposable income,” which I use for things like computers, cameras, home improvements, electronic gadgets, and other things that aren’t strictly necessary. What did people back in, say, 1961 spend their disposable income on? I’m guessing boats and snowmobiles have always been popular (well, here in Michigan), but what else? We’ve had a huge middle class since WWII, and presumably for a parity-of-money calculation, we have to include “wasted” money in the figures, right? I mean for example, if there was simply no disposable income, then we’re all rich in relative terms regardless of the CPI, right?
I just remember having fun driving the thing. Plus I could haul my drum kit in it. I took ownership of it late in it’s life though, so I had to put it out to pasture. I think it might have been a '72 Super Beetle.
One word: Herbie
I stand corrected on the timing chain. I drove a Bug for awhile but never tore down an engine. The sound of the engine made one think of a faulty timing chain. The racket that engine put out was very distinctive and very unsettling to anybody that appreciated a smooth running engine. The rest of your post seems to affirm my contention that “it would run forever but it never ran right.” (“Forever” in those days was anything over 50,000 miles.)
The thing I could never figure out was why young people saw any appeal in the POS. It was one of the worst “make-out” cars ever designed. The only girls that were willing to go the distance in the car like that were the desperate ones. In those days, about the only privacy you could get was in a car. You needed something with either a bench seat or a formidable back seat. A bug was useless for the needs of adolescents and young adults. In the colder climates you would try to go parking and the poor lass was shivering because the heater was so crappy. I think my mom bought one for me to drive because she was trying to control my morality. Should I forgive her?
While some people love them, to me it is a car to be hated. Back to the OP, what in the hell was the appeal?
Five words: Post #16 and post #21.
Well now you’re getting subjective! The appeal will be lost on you forever, because the car is inextricably linked to teenage sexual frustration in your mind. I irrationally love bugs despite never having owned one, entirely because of a whole bunch of good childhood experiences in a VW bus. That blatty engine sound will be forever associated with long summer vacations and camping and adventure for me.
Yeah, surprisingly enough, the length of the van was just barely longer than the bug. I own both, and it never ceases to amaze me.
You don’t need to be desperate, just young, and for size, I have gotten laid in an MG.
As was pointed out earlier, the back seat was fairly easy to mod, and the passenger front seat had a mod to make it full reclining that was fairly simple to do.
In 61?
The 2 week jump in the car and go that away driving vacation was popular, and you tended to need to have a fair amount of cash in hand. It was common to put money away for your kids to go to a university, and for your retirement. You bought a house and spent money modifying and upkeeping it, a lot of which has essentially stopped being done.
I dont know when the last time I actually heard someone mentioning putting money away for a kid to go to school, they are working on getting loans and scholarships … my university expenses were all in place thanks to savings long before I ever had to decide where to go. Being a ‘scholarship’ student was sort of looked down on unless it was something like a VA program. People tended to save up to buy stuff more than depend on credit cards. For a long time, American Express and Diners Club were pretty much the only credit cards, and AmEx had to be paid off every month.
Most people I know around here sell the house when they need a bit more space, I have only seen one house around here getting an addition, and one house getting a second storey being put up. Generally you see a for sale sign going up and hear that they needed more space. Granted, you do see people putzing around replacing decks and patios, but they are pretty inexpensive nowdays and you can get them in kit form from Home Depot and Lowes.
Nowdays people just dont get the vacation time, it gets eaten up in being used for sick days and doctors appointments, DMV visits and so forth. To be honest, the average american vacation nowdays tends to be a long weekend doing something, or very occasionally people save up for a few years and do a week at DisneyWorld or a cruise. I can remember in the 60s doing the month of July at my grandparents summer house in Canada [as opposed to the regular summer house in Western NY]
I owned a couple of Beetles during my college years. Other than getting somewhat better mileage than larger American cars, I can’t think of anything that was really good about them. In all other respects, the car was never any better than adequate; and frequently it wasn’t even that. They were noisy, uncomfortable, and IME required pretty frequent repair.
A couple cars later, I got a used VW Rabbit. It was superior to the Beetles in every way. If I were inclined to get nostalgic over Volkswagens, it would be the Rabbit not the Beetle.
Ah yes, the VW Van. The only vehicle that used human knees for the front bumper.
A good friend in college had one (actually, several good friends - I was a Deadhead) and I always, always, always refused to ride shotgun. I couldn’t get used to having nothing between me and the car in front except the headlight and my kneecap.
Ahem.
None of the three cars they used on the trip were designed for rallying. Lancia’s rally teams operated the Fulvia and Stratos during the Beta’s production run. None of Mercedes’ W123 models (the equivalent of the modern E-class) was ever used in a works rally program. Opel’s works rally program didn’t exist when the Kadett A was in production.
You can’t very well fault VW for that. People remember the Beetle as a fashion statement as much as a people’s car- and they wanted to cash in.
The BMW/Rover Mini has very little in common with the BMC/BL/Austin/Rover Mini, other than relatively small size and go-kart handling. The original was a work of genius, breaking new ground in packaging and single-handedly bringing about the front-wheel-drive revolution. The new one breaks less ground than a shovel.
Old Fiat 500 - revolutionary (or at least clever) people’s car. New Fiat 500 - like the Beetle, not as good as the Panda (Golf, in the case of the Beetle) it comes from, but much cuter.
I could go on - Toyota FJ Cruiser, etc. - but I won’t.
Just about the only '60s-revival-kitsch model that is true to its roots is the new Mustang, and only in the sense that it uses the same Stone Age suspension technology. (and pushrod V8, possibly - not sure if that was phased out)
There was always the spare wheel…
HA! Not on the ones I rode in regularly. If any of them were lucky enough to even still have the spare, it had been removed and thrown in the back somewhere.
I vaguely remember Clarkson blathering about his Beta’s rallying pedigree or something… I stand corrected!
Lancia has (well, had) a tremendous history in rallying - the Stratos was a car for the ages, and the Delta Integrale was more or less the direct ancestor of today’s rally-derived road rockets like the Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru WRX.
The Beta isn’t really a part of all that, though; it was the first Lancia launched after Fiat took over the company, and it was much more of a Fiat-style econobox than Lancia-style sports car. (And used a Fiat engine).
My first car was a seventysomething VW Beetle. I could change the oil and do numerous other maintenance jobs myself, and it was great in the snow. One time I ran off the road during a snowstorm, and I was able (with a friend) to pick it up and move it back onto the road.
When it was due for state inspection, and I couldn’t afford tires, I found a workaround. My parents were away visiting relatives for the day. I put their second car up on blocks and swapped wheels with my VW. After getting my inspection sticker, I raced home and swapped back. When my parents got home, my dad couldn’t believe my car passed.
It’s true that VW was going for kitsch branding with the New Beetle rather than a reincarnation of the original concept, but they still could have done a better job of it. It just seemed like an industrial designer-led effort with little engineering forethought; a car design driven purely by marketing.
The BMW MINI is certainly a different creature than the original Mini, but despite my antipathy for it, I can acknowledge (as with the Mazda Miata) that it is at least a well-executed concept of something I would never buy myself. The New Beetle is just an answer to a question nobody really asked; not fun to drive, not economical, not practical, not really much of anything except saccharine nostalgia.
Stranger
When Disney does the car thing, you get Herbie.
With Stephen King, Christine.
Go figure.