The musings of a politically incorrect dinosaur from a forgotten age where civility was the rule rather than the exception.
Webster
The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Last Volkswagon Beetle off the assembly line.
When I was little, we were stationed in Germany and my Dad owned several Volkswagons, including a beetle, 2 microbuses...
This was the first one in Germany..
I remember it looking like this one but gray.
The Second one was Yellow but it looked like this...
My Dads last Volkswagon was this one and it is still my favorite Volkswagon, and they are rare now..
As I recall, it was a 1966/1967 Volkswagon Type 3. My Dad got it in 1976, and it looked like it rolled off the showroom floor, whomever owned it before my Dad did had taken really good care of it. It was a European car so we couldn't take it back to the states., bummer I liked that one. When I returned to Germany in 1986 as a G.I. A lot of GI's bought Volkswagon beetles because they were cheap. I had my Mustang so I was lucky or unlucky because I had a note and really expensive insurance.
The end of an era as the last Volkswagen Beetle was driven off of the production line in Puebla, Mexico.
Originally designed by Ferdinand Porsche in 1938 to answer Adolf
Hitler’s call for a “people’s car,” or a “volks wagen” in German.
Few Beetles were produced before Word War II but the war put a halt
to production. After the war, the British authorities restarted
production and changed the name of the car to the Beetle in order to
free it from the baggage of its Nazi history.
The Beetle
became a worldwide hit, selling over 21 million over it’s lifetime. It
even could be considered a Hollywood star after the “Love Bug” movies
featured a Beetle in the title role.
The first brand new car that I ever bought was a 1974 Beetle. Cost at the time was $3200. Double the 1966 price of $1600. Unlike the complaints that I heard about earlier models, that thing had a great heater/defroster. The thing that I really liked was how great the tape player sounded. The "luggage compartment" behind the rear seat made the perfect speaker cabinet. The only trouble was that the Jenson coax speakers were so heavy that the compartment cover would fall down whenever you hit a bump. I had to add a little angle bracket to hold it up...........
The first brand new car that I ever bought was a 1974 Beetle. Cost at the time was $3200. Double the 1966 price of $1600. Unlike the complaints that I heard about earlier models, that thing had a great heater/defroster. The thing that I really liked was how great the tape player sounded. The "luggage compartment" behind the rear seat made the perfect speaker cabinet. The only trouble was that the Jenson coax speakers were so heavy that the compartment cover would fall down whenever you hit a bump. I had to add a little angle bracket to hold it up...........
ReplyDeleteIn the late 60s, Beetles were $1200 out the door. And you 'can' get well over 100HP out of a 2180cc motor. :-)
ReplyDelete