Antique & Classic Cars Blog

A friend just bought his wife a ’68 Beetle, mint. He told me this and I thought I replied but I guess it didn’t get to him. So he asked whether I disapproved.

Disapproved? Of a Beetle? Who on the planet doesn’t like the iconic air-cooled dome-top symbol of youth and freedom and open roads and guitars and sandals and beaches and bungalows that is VW’s little Bug?

It isn’t a car everyone should own—wouldn’t make a great work vehicle for a carpenter, for example—but does anyone actually dislike them? Hard to imagine. They’re so unique looking, fuel efficient, unassuming, easy to park—they even float! What other car floats (besides an Amphicar)?

No, I salute Grace’s new car. My father bought a red Beetle with light grey interior new in 1973. He drove it well over 100,000 miles then gave it to my sister who drove it well past 200,000. She gave it up when the floors were so rusted she would get splashed in the driver’s seat going through a puddle.

I loved that car with its burbling little engine, AM radio, floor-mounted pedals and notchy little four-speed gearbox. I remember coming home from a girlfriend’s in high school late in a snowstorm and going off the road at a tight juke by one of Pennsylvania’s very narrow one-lane bridges. I got out, managed to get a foothold on something and pushed the car back on the road backwards with my back against the driver’s doorframe. Wouldn’t have worked with my mother’s ’74 Plymouth Satellite.

That red Beetle was a good little car. When freelance writing finally displaces neurosurgery on the income tables, I’m going to add one to my immense warehouse of classic cars.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.