My car is a stick shift 1973 VW Super Beetle that I bought in 1976. Since that year was the 200th anniversary of the United States the price stated in the For Sale ad was $1776 – I think we agreed upon $1500 as a suitable sale price.
Prorating the cost over the past 33 years it comes to about $45 a year – not bad?
Of course we are on our second engine and in the last year it has become our only car. A yellow cab driver demolished our other car, a trusty, not-quite-as-old Volvo, last March.
Obviously it’s a struggle for two working people to manage with just one car in a state like Florida that has little or no convenient public transport. I work farther from home so I generally use the car. My husband can walk to work in 17 minutes – he’s timed it!
There are few of us driving vintage VW’s. One sees the occasional VW bus and rarely a bug. Yesterday a young person drove by taking our picture (obviously she wasn’t interested in the bug’s occupants!).
I should explain that my car isn’t some vintage glamour job – it has peeling, rusty spots all over its body, remnants of age, contact with other vehicles and palm fronds falling on the roof. The paint is a very dull royal blue and pieces of rusty metal hang from below – I always say that those ventilated floor boards are our A/C system; just helps the airflow through the interior!
But we are vintage nonetheless. I am reluctant to buy a special number plate designating it vintage – what if someone then thinks my old banger is valuable?
A friend once begged to allow her 5‑year-old son (a Herbie The Love Bug fan) to visit and have his photo taken beside the car. When I offered them a ride around the block both mother and son were in heaven.
Our bug was our transport to field trips in our home ed days. We actually had two families aboard – quite the char-a-banc ride! Totally illegal I’m sure and yet we were all buckled up: three children under 10 in the back seat plus an infant I was babysitting anchored in his car seat; my friend and her youngest daughter buckled together in the front passenger seat!
The picture was completed with a large pushchair (stroller) peeping out from under the bonnet (hood), which was tied down with rope. Our picnic cooler got wedged behind the back seat. Our paint job certainly looked better in those days. As entertainment our boys sang all the way home. Happy days.
Our sons learned to drive on that stick shift. I always thought it was important to actually understand those noises coming out of the engine! I firmly believe they are very good drivers as a result of the several years they spent driving the bug.
What a car! It’s part of who and what I am today.