One careful, very careful, owner

[Gob]

It's one of the most iconic and fun cars to drive of all time.

So you'd expect this 42-year-old VW Beetle to have hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock.



But this 1974 model has had just one extremely careful owner who only drove it a total of 56 miles.

Over the next four years, his visits became more infrequent and by the time he made his last trip, he had only driven a total of 56 miles.



Silverstone Auctions, which is putting the car up for sale, said: 'Unique is a word nearly always incorrectly used, but in the case of this 1974 Beetle, we think not.

'There are original photographs of the car taken when it was first discovered in the barn and its presented today after light recommissioning, having benefited from a good coating of Waxoyl.

'It still holds the original oil in the engine and is shod with its first set of tyres.'

[BoSoxGal]

I would love to have that car. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!

My mom had a 74 Beetle in yellow when I was a little tyke; many years later I had an old beat up one as one of my first cars while in college.

Damn I wish I'd win the lottery tomorrow. How much are they selling it for?

[Gob]

Set to fetch £30,000.

[BoSoxGal]

I just searched it online, the listing I found says they expect 35-40,000 pounds - which would be like what, $55-60,000 USD?

Original sales price was what, $2500-$3500 USD?

Anyway, I'm buying a PowerBall ticket tomorrow!

[RayThom]

Way cool. My first car was a 1955 VW Bug with the oval rear window, semifore turning signals in the doorposts, and with no gas gauge. There was a handle on the firewall that kicked in the reserve gas tank when the engine began sputtering.

A real fun car. It took a lickin' but kept on tickin'... until a home delivery oil truck ran into it when the drive went through a stop sign.

This is almost identical to what I had:

[Jarlaxle]

The original VW Beetle was the worst car ever sold in the United States. It is a fossil that should have been euthanized twenty years before it actually was and probably should not be allowed on public roads without a parade permit and escort.

I'll give them $100 over scrap value if they deliver it.

[Bicycle Bill]

The original VW Beetle was the worst car ever sold in the United States.  It is a fossil that should have been euthanized twenty years before it actually was and probably should not be allowed on public roads without a parade permit and escort.

Even worse than a Yugo?

Consider this, Jarlaxle — rarity drives the collectible market.  So you may be right on the button with your judgement of the original Beetle, but that doesn't make this particular specimen any less desirable as a collectible.  Edsels and the Chevy Corvairs got a bad rap in their day too, but they are still sought after by collectors and automotive historians.

So you might as well brace yourself for it...no matter how crappy it might have been when new it is inevitable that some day, in the probably not-too-distant future, someone will drive that Yugo I mentioned (in well-maintained or restored condition) across the Barrett-Jackson stage and people are going to literally wet themselves to have the opportunity to bid on it.

-"BB"-

[Crackpot]

Just don't drive it over the Mackinac Bridge on a windy day.

[Jarlaxle]

The original VW Beetle was the worst car ever sold in the United States.  It is a fossil that should have been euthanized twenty years before it actually was and probably should not be allowed on public roads without a parade permit and escort.

Even worse than a Yugo?

Consider this, Jarlaxle — rarity drives the collectible market.  So you may be right on the button with your judgement of the original Beetle, but that doesn't make this particular specimen any less desirable as a collectible.  Edsels and the Chevy Corvairs got a bad rap in their day too, but they are still sought after by collectors and automotive historians.

So you might as well brace yourself for it...no matter how crappy it might have been when new it is inevitable that some day, in the probably not-too-distant future, someone will drive that Yugo I mentioned (in well-maintained or restored condition) across the Barrett-Jackson stage and people are going to literally wet themselves to have the opportunity to bid on it.

-"BB"-

Worse than a Yugo? Absolutely and unequivocally yes! At least a Yugo won't abruptly spin out of control simply from getting off the gas in a turn...where a VW most emphatically WILL! The VW had all the handling quirks the Corvair was pilloried for, and plenty of other issues on top of that!

[Gob]

You've no soul Jarl....

[RayThom]

That's a great old commercial. With all the VW's utility it's almost like it's presented as the people's car, or something.

[Gob]

Note the image on the video, a young man teaching his daughter how to salute properly.

[Bicycle Bill]

Here's another classic Vee-Dub advertisement.



-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Wow, was that a real advertisement? It's in terribly bad taste, insulting to the Kopechne family to the extreme.

[Bicycle Bill]

Sorry, BSG, I thought anybody of a certain age knew that this was bogus.

The National Lampoon's infamous Teddy Kennedy ad was a visually spot-on replica of VW’s series of advertisements produced by Doyle Dane Bernbach, one of which specifically claimed the Beetle was so well sealed it could float.  The Lampoon had to recall the magazine and issue an apology.  They issued this retraction: “Even if Ted Kennedy had driven a Volkswagen he wouldn’t be president today.”  As offensive as this appeared to many, it was seen as hilarious by others.

Here's the original "floating VW" ad.


-"BB"-

[oldr_n_wsr]

I had a 1964 beetle in high school. Hand crank sun roof. Had to hold the gear shift in 4th gear. Bungy cord took care of that.
Running boards rusted right off. Had to put a piece of plywood to hold the battery (which was under hte back seat) as the floor rotted through.

[dales]

Worse than a Yugo? Absolutely and unequivocally yes! At least a Yugo won't abruptly spin out of control simply from getting off the gas in a turn...where a VW most emphatically WILL! The VW had all the handling quirks the Corvair was pilloried for, and plenty of other issues on top of that!

That era VW wasn't for the ham-fisted with slow reflexes.

Later era VW's (67 and later) did away with the swing axle set-up.

The handling was more predictable.

PORSCHES of that era were never faulted, even though the suspension was similar........They just won race after race.

[MGMcAnick]

Note the image on the video, a young man teaching his daughter how to salute properly.

Left handed?

Worse than a Yugo? Absolutely and unequivocally yes! At least a Yugo won't abruptly spin out of control simply from getting off the gas in a turn...where a VW most emphatically WILL! The VW had all the handling quirks the Corvair was pilloried for, and plenty of other issues on top of that!

I'm probably the only one here who has owned both a Beetle and a Yugo. The Yugo was one year old in 1988. I dumped it in six months. Good move. The Beetle was six years old in 1979. I'd say the Beetle is better by far.

How many 30 year old Yugos do you ever see? 1985, '86, & '87 were the only years they were imported here, so 30 years is about the maximum possible. I'll bet it's been two years since I saw one, and I pay attention to cars. How many 40 or 50 year old Beetles do you see? I see one go by my office daily. It has a small oval rear window. I don't know its exact age, but it's still running. I think they dropped the small window in 1957.

Wanna talk about Corvairs? I've had half a dozen. The most recent was a 1962 factory turbo charged Spyder a little over three years ago. What a blast from the past that was. It took me three days to make it run after finding it. The Corvair was often referred to as the poor man's Porsche. Bad car? Not if the tires were kept properly inflated and it was driven well. Even my '63 cornered like it was on rails, and it had the early axle set up. I had it in high school, so I drove it flat out at 87 MPH on country roads a lot. Yeah, not to smartest thing to do. Did you know if you hit a raccoon in a Corvair at 87 MPH, it will bend the lower valance in about a six inches? It's also hard on the raccoon. It was a $200 car. I continued to drive it that way until I sold it for more than I gave for it.

[Jarlaxle]

The VW has the same inherent handling vice that most rear-engine cars had, and that the Porsche 911 had into the 1990s: knife-in-the-back snap oversteer. The VW was a fossil that did nothing well except "cute". Acceleration was glacial, brakes were bad to terrible (IIRC, they never even got discs), handling was lousy, bad-weather performance was downright dangerous due to no heater.

[kmccune]

They would go good in the snow however,a Squareback would go pushing snow,some people could destroy an anvil with a feather. A VW wasnt for everybody,wouldnt you like to have one of those old multi-windowed VW Vans now ?