[Closed] Classic VW Beetles

My wife has a '72 1300. I'd say 25 miles a day would be doable but you'd be looking at some fairly regular maintenance.

bought for £1k from ebay like this;

[IMG] [/IMG]

we spent another £1.5k getting it on the road and probably another £600 on parts etc over the past 18 months. She does about 4 miles to work and back 3 or 4 times a week.

tbh I'd be careful abotu relying on a 40 year old car for a daily driver without access to a ready backup (having said that, I ran a 45 year old car as a daily driver for 5 years...).

get a classic mini instead.

I love classic VW dubs and have had an 85 Passat (low ride 🙂 ) and a 66 Beetle but as much as I do think they're amazing I'd find it hard to recommend a bug as a reliable everyday driver.

Mine never let me down too severely but it was a consatnt money pit to keep it running. At one stage, once I had a company van, and other cars, I locked it away in the nice dry Silverfish warehouse, 200 dry miles and 12 months later I took it for an MOT and watched it fail!

I love em but I would go into with your eyes open.

Richie

p.s: I'm sure a lot of the work I had to have done on mine could've been done by a half competent home mechanic but I never gave it a crack.

Mrs SB had an M reg one for a while and she was doing a daily commute of about 30 miles each way.
Although they are not very comfortable or quiet, tend to rust quite a bit and are not the best economically it was an absolutely brilliant car........ we loved it!

For 6 months I drove my sisters Beetle as a regular car. I would definitely not recommend owning one as 1st car. maybe if you are just using it as a back up for an occasional 13mile journey, but not if you intend to use it regularly, for longer journeys and in winter. My sisters Beetle was in good nick and looked nice, with all chrome etc, but no heating to speak of, wipers crap, windows constantly steamed up, fumes in car from engine, crap handling, noisey and worst of all, every other Beetle driver waves at you like they're your best mate and you have this bond, my reply was usually 2 fingers.

"my reply was usually 2 fingers."

youre not a closet roadie perhaps B.A.nana? 😆

but no heating to speak of

heater ducts rotten or just lsolated

, fumes in car from engin

rotten heat exchangers

crap handling, noise

every other Beetle driver waves at you like they're your best mate and you have this bond, my reply was usually 2 fingers.

same with VW buses - my mum has a bus they are always wavng at other bus drivers......

I love the look of sorted ones (as I do old splitty vans) but as cars to own, they are cack.

Horribly slow, thirsty, no brakes and terrible if you crash (a mates mum crashed hers into a tree when I was about 7 - she died and definitely shouldn't have done) and need loads of looking after.

If I was looking for a old head turner, I'd get a mk1 Escort or a classic Mini (which are a hoot to drive).

And any surfer who can surf does NOT own one - they are hopeless as surf transport!

I knew someone with a LHD beetle.

he used to equip his passengers with a 'spare' steering wheel and encourage them to pull 'horrified' faces and wave it around in front of them whenever there was an oncoming car.

my how we laughed.

"my reply was usually 2 fingers."

youre not a closet roadie perhaps B.A.nana?

LOL
For reasons of balance, it's only fair to add, I had just lost a nice Company car thru redundancy. So, I wasn't in a place I wanted to be, people waving at me, like I was one of them, just made things worse.

I had one as a daily driver for a while. It was fun but the novelty does wear off, especially in the winter. It went wrong a fair bit but always easy to fix. The heater never worked, though. Great as a second car IMO

Good stuff, keep it coming.. not bothered about practicality as I said, and a lack of heating is no problem (had an Elise that was frozen bum crack every morning), but reliability does need to be at leasy in the high nineties, or the Eunos is a cheaper more reliable option I think

I love em but I would go into with your eyes open

Thank God for the STW masses, somebody knows something, usually lots about everything.

And any surfer who can surf does NOT own one - they are hopeless as surf transport!

I think living on the Hants/Wilts border there's not much danger of needing that, till the boys start pestering me for longboards 😀

Any websites you can recommend to have a little read up on? See if the remedial work is something I'm up for?

Mini is out, they just don't do much for me, I think a few near death experiences in a friends probably did that. A fettled MGB or MGC would be nice.. something with a [i]bit[/i] of character after a couple of years in a 1.6 Almera which does 'functional' better than anything.

when i asked my mate whos into mk1 golfs about buying a golf - his reply was can you weld ......

Addis Ababa is rammed with old beetles- most of which are in really good condition...

No use to you, but I found it interesting.

I have owned a couple of aircooled VWs and I would love another one but only for sunny day driving when I have nowhere to get to in a hurry. If I was going to buy another older car as a daily I would have another MK2 Golf GTI.

when i asked my mate whos into mk1 golfs about buying a golf - his reply was can you weld ......

That's what I was hoping NOT to hear, don't have the time to learn, though I'd like too 🙁

working as daily drivers here..
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How about something like a mk1 MR2, or an X1/9?

Had one for a short while 20 years ago - the heating wasn't much of a problem if you wanted either way too hot or off completely 🙂

Automatic choke on the other hand was a nightmare. Despite much tinkering it would only ever cut in after about 5 miles, by which time I was rolling through the gates at work. Developed a nice heel & toe method of using the pedals.

Had to get rid in the end, cost too much to keep running on an 18 years olds wages.

If I had the time, energy and spare cash, I'd consider another.

I had a 71 for about 15 years,to put it into context when I had finally had enough of it,I bought a VW Corrado...which was cheaper to run.The lack of heat will be an issue when you are scrapping the ice off the inside of your windscreen.If you can get a good one then great,but if they have had bodged repairs,and by now most have,then be prepared to spend a lot of time with a large collection of parts strewn over your garage.And you do not EVER want to hear the words "floor pan" and "welded" in the same sentence about your beetle.They can also be pretty frustrating when you have just forked out on new heat exchangers for no obvious difference!
I bought mine for about £1500 in the early 90's and it cost me about another £5k and 5 years to get it pretty much perfect.At the time you could get the new beetles with the 1.6 golf engine for £8k. If you watch if for about half an hour in winter, you WILL see something rot off it.Mind you....the full length sunroof open of a sunny day and the florida blue metallic paint shining...(shakes himself)

[img] [/img]
The only photo I have, from 14 years ago.

I think if I go 2 seater it'll almost certainly be Eunos (or better a GB spec one as the insurers are less weird about it and it's probably undersealed). Had one, took it apart a fair bit, ragged it around a lot and loved it. Just wrestling with the idea of something with a couple more seats might just be a step toward practicality that's required, as I sort out the MPV servicing and we live out in the sticks so the wife would be trapped with 3 under 5s when it was away.. if she could atleast load it up with child seats she could get into town for shopping/playgrounds/swimming even if it wasn't a 100% positive experience. That said, thats only been 1 day out of the last year so maybe it's a goer.

So brass, what's your shortlist? A Eunos is very different to a Beetle!

Mk1 Golf GTi with "proper" brakes would be great as would a mk2 Gti - both classics IMO and modern enough not to be dangerous.

Yes all very different but thats sort of the point, I like the collectives ideas... the GTi is an interesting idea I'll look into that, on old Quattro would have been good too but I bet they've gone through the roof price wise these days. Would have liked a VW combi van or camper but again I think anything half decent is in the 'real car' money category, which I can't afford for a year or two.

Thing is, it's an easy drive to spend a day in a secure indoor car park, so I was hoping I could pick up something fun or characterful to do it in, without breaking the bank and forming a close personal relationship with the local RAC call out center.

I also checked out Smart Roadsters, though they might have dipped under 2K by now. I was wrong. TR6? No chance. Spitfire? Possibly.. but that's probably another thread in itself. 2CV? Not sure I'd want to drive one in todays traffic.

It'll probably end up as another Almera anyway!

Buy a recentish Mexican Beetle?

Circa 5-10yrs old. 4k.

I used to have a '72 Bay window Bus. I loved that bus, it was brilliant, and I'd have another like a shot. Simply the best vehicle I''ve ever owned, the only real downside was the fuel 'economy' but they're very cheap to service, and if you lokk after them they're reliable enough.

awful awful things, but you can swap an engine on the hard shoulder within an hour with basic tools because i've done it, and an old beetle engine fits in the back of a 2.8 crapi no problems as i found out taking it to a mate who broke down on the motorway near bristol,
three lessons learned about old beetles from watching a friend own one are
1 get a spare engine BEFORE it blows up
2 get to know a local welder on intimate terms
3 buy something else
if i wanted a classic car id get an old alfa/lancia it will still be a pain in the a**e to maintain but when it works it wil be lovely not a rattley slow shed that makes you loose the will to live

khani you just reminded me about the 2 mint crapi 2.8s i saw coming down the a96 last week getting squirlly racing off the round abouts - mint red one without the laser kit and a grey one with it

i loved mine, wish i kept it now cos their fetching silly money
i had a 2.8i four speed, cammed up with a fancy exhaust and a lowering kit in candy apple red with silver sills and it was lovely (for a crapi)
still got the speedo on the mantlepiece

khani,

How did you manage to blow the engine?

😕

Get one!
Got a bus only ever let me down once (starter motor)
Last weekend on the Chase my kind of Park and ride!
[img] [/img]

Can't see a lancia outlasting a vw in the rust stakes to be honest!

Hmm, Spitfires though.. now you're talking.. the front end almost falls off, and theres a specialist not a million miles away for those 'You did what???' moments of shame in front of a proper mechanic.

Hora, where'd you see the Mexican ones advertised? They might side step a lot of the worst issues, and I might be able to get a decent enough drive to figure out if its for me or not.

That's a beauty Postierich, you must be very very proud! Cracking photo.

But as I said, decent examples are a bit out of my spending power for now, the bathroom needs doing this year!

chewkw - Member
khani,

How did you manage to blow the engine?

Don't confuse transport and toy's I did and ended up with an MG midget, love it to bits on a country b-road hillclimb, the track to the youth hostel on sunday was a cracking example, 2nd and 3rd gear the the whole way up, revs kept up to keep the engine on cam, back end squireling away, and uphill so no wories abotu the pathetic brakes.

But if you get an anoying/big mechanical its an absolute ball ache, I can build a bike from a pile of CRC boxes in 2 hours probably. Car jobs take a lot longer, involve lots more mess and a lot more stress.

If you enjoy spannering as much as you do driving, go for it, if the thought of spending 3 weeks solid with every evening spent under the car replacing the entire brake system becasue 1 hose failed fills you with dread then dont.

mk1 MR2

I have one for sale - great car, v reliable and fun to drive if a little under powered...

[img] [/img]

been lowered a bit since above to replace the original springs...

driven by my sis
[img] [/img]

I do like the aesthetics of them, but tell me are they a nightmare to own and live with on a day to day basis? Would I regret getting one?

Yes and Yes.

They're noisy, they're slow, the heaters either freeze or gas you if they're not working properly (which is most of the time), they go rusty, most of them have been owned by at least 5 dippy people with no idea how to run an old car. AND they have a carburettor, which is enemy number 1 of the bloke who doesn't want to spend time servicing his car. And they break down all the bloody time (and yes, there'll be someone who has one that doesn't, but chances are you'll have the one where some chump used silicone sealant instead of a new sump gasket, and you'll only find out when a lump of it blocks an oilway).

I love cars, but I'd own almost anything else instead of a beetle. The thing is, they just aren't very good even when they're perfect.

Seriously, you can run old cars for a giggle, but there are two things you need. Fuel injection and decent rustproofing.
Which takes you down the route of the MK2 Golf or an old sporty Merc / BMW from the 70s-80s, that was dinitroled / ziebarted back in the day.

MK1 MR2s that aren't rusty are beginning to fetch very good money.

If I had to drive a people carrier, I'd be making the second car the sportiest thing I could find.

TBH I'd stick to the MX5 idea.

If you had a bit more cash, the mk3 MR2 is a brilliant handler and really well made.

Christ! Don't buy an MR2! You'll have to grow a 'fashion mullet' and pretend to be a hair dresser stuck in the 80's!

Mate had an old beetle, driving in the winter with the windows down as the bloody thing tried to gas you was great.

Oh it also had a VNE of about 55mph (Velocity not to exceed)when it became even more terrifying. It was that bad I would rather have been in my other mates Metro that was a cut'n'shut and at the end of it's life had been written off 3 times (he used to take it to the very north west of Scotland to have it MOT'd as anywhere else would fail it!)

MX5/Eunos however are fantastic, rarely break and are fab to drive.

It's simples.

wicked cars, I used to commute a 50 mile round trip across the N Yorks moors in a 1972 1303 Baja
.
I've had 2 beetles and could list at least 20 times they broke down
I cracked a cylinder head racing an MR2 and that was the last straw
if I bought one now, I wouldn't drive it, I'd just fettle with it and look at it

bruk - do you know my dad - tat sounds suspiciously like a 1.3 metro we had in 1988

The Metro was a C and D reg bolted together and run around Dundee, bought initially as a cut'n'shut. My mate wrote it off the 1st time sledging it in the snow in Camperdown park and had a tree interface moment. Then repaired it and wrote it off rear-ending a Saab (no damage to the Saab. It indicates how bad my mates driving was and the substandard car how bad it was I'd rather travel in that than a Beetle.

Would have been late eighties

bruk - you scare me now. was it grey/bluey

thats the area we are from !

I think it was a blue/grey colour. Thinking about it I went to Uni in 1991 so my mate probably had it from 1989/90 ish till he sold it when it finaly couldn't be MOT'd by anyone with 1/2 a working eye.

Did your dad sell it on?

Had a few cracking trips to the hills in that car, good memories.

Aye it was traded into barnetts in the ferry for a mk1 cavilier

love cars, but I'd own almost anything else instead of a beetle. The thing is, they just aren't very good even when they're perfect.

That's a pretty comprehensive indictment 🙂

Seriously, you can run old cars for a giggle, but there are two things you need. Fuel injection and decent rustproofing.

And that too meets with my own assesment.. since I stopped owning cars with carbs I do have more free time!

every other Beetle driver waves at you like they're your best mate and you have this bond, my reply was usually 2 fingers.

If you'd like to drive a 'practical classic' but never get waved at by fellow owners buy an MGB. I drove one for 6 years, as my only motor, 3 of those years with a daily 50 round trip commute and 400mile weekends to visit my GF. In all that time I was not once even acknowleged let alone waved at by another MG driver

If you'd like to drive a 'practical classic' but never get waved at by fellow owners buy an MGB. I drove one for 6 years, as my only motor, 3 of those years with a daily 50 round trip commute and 400mile weekends to visit my GF. In all that time I was not once even acknowleged let alone waved at by another MG driver

Really? I get waved at by everyone in my midget, and its got rubber bumpers and everything!

People in MGF's and TF's (the new ones, not the originals) are an odd bunch though, half blank you thinking that you just make their car look like something fromt he 60's and uncool, the other half cant wait to be your best friend in order to give their car some percieved classic status.

Waving at other driver cos they've got the same car, tis a bit nerdy?

Waving at other driver cos they've got the same car, tis a bit nerdy?

You realise you just wrote that on a mountain bike forum right?

I sold my beetle recently to help fund my wedding.
I had it for 2 years and it never failed to start, even if left standing for a month or two over winter.
However, it was a moneypit, I had the central tunnel replaced and the front subframe as it had been bodged at some point in its life. Brakes were shonky and it stank of petrol if you filled the tank right up. It was also lowered and had wide rear wheels which meant it handled brilliantly in the dry but in the wet it tried to steer you off the road into a hedge!
I loved it though, it always cheered me up driving it and I'd get another but I would not want one as an only car. You'd need to get used to home maintenance though but most tasks are easy and it prompted me to learn how to weld which is a handy skill to have.

If you want a website for more info you could do a lot worse than going to Volkszone.com. It's a bit like STW but for classic VWs 🙂

Here's a pic of the old girl:

[img] [/img]

Would love a beetle

dont get the person saying that an escort is an alternative - price wise there is a huge chasm. You can get a semi decent beetle beetle for ~£1500

A similar condition escort will be twice that

tootallpaul - Member

Addis Ababa is rammed with old beetles- most of which are in really good condition...

I would guess Addis Ababa is slightly drier than Basingstoke though...

Worked on my first Beetle in the early 80s. Arrived back at work after summer hols to be handed a box of bits and told to fix

that thing in the corner

Few yrs ago this hatred was reinforced when I gave my bro-in-law some help to renovate a Carmen Ghia Beetle from the ground up. Finding any good metal to weld new stuff onto was a nightmare 😈 👿

Foe me it would have to be a Mini/Stag/TR6/Spitfire/Herald/Vitesse/Sprint/Mk1 Mexico/Mk1RS2000 or some of the old Rovers eg 100 or the V8 one 😆

Trail rat, guess that seals it, sounds like the same car for sure as Im sure his mum bought it than passed it onto him when he passed his test.

It lived an eventful life and but died an ingloriious death as an MOT failure from memory.

Still better than a Beetle though. Never broke down and although it did have an alarming pull when braking heavily it was porbably safer too.

My wife bought me this for my birthday a few weeks ago:

[IMG] [/IMG]

Always wanted a Mk1 GTI and was due to get a Boxster this year but she dented the car fund BIG time with holidays so as a peace offering she combined the GTI and soft-top thing and came up with this. A 1986 GTI cabriolet. 😀
I wanted to have it in 'just left the showroom' spec' but that went out the window rather sharpish when I came across a leather interior for it but still have all the original kit for it in one of the garages.
Just need to do the brakes for the MOT and then it'll be on the road. A new black hood will be going on too.
As it happens my uncle is selling one of the very last MK1 MX5s in fantastic condition. If you want any details give me a shout.

Paul.

Having had numerous Beetles and campers, my frank advice would be:

1) If you think you might like one, go and look at a couple and have a drive in them. They don't exactly drive like a 'normal' car in terms of handling/pace/gear change etc.
2) If you [i]still [/i]fancy one, do your homework. Work out what model you like, and what's practical for you. A 1950 split window Beetle will look nice, but not be as practical as a 1975 1303 for example!
3) Having done some homework, get looking (good place is the for sale forum on volkszone.com Bit like STW for VWs!)
4) And when you think you've found one you like....get someone who knows aircooled vws to [i]go with you[/i]! Engines can be fixed easy enough. If you start poking your fingers through sills / heater channels, walk (run!) away.

Best of luck!

Rich

Frizzer - Member

I had the central tunnel replaced

How the hell did you have to have that replaced? That's the only bit that doesn't really ever rot! You usually end up rebuilding a floorpan [i]around [/i]the tunnel. In fact, you can't really replace the tunnel without having some sort of full body-off restoration and virtually a new chassis... 🙂

Frizzer - wouldn't want to own a Beetle but yours is definitely a stunner.

How the hell did you have to have that replaced?

LOL! Unfortunately the front subframe had rotted where it met the spine so water got into the tunnel and then proceded to rot the bottom of it out from the inside. We only spotted it at the MOT as it had been quite cleverly bodged and wasn't something I'd checked when buying it as I'd never heard of that area rotting before.
There's a guy I know who is very good at restoration and he chopped out all the rotten metal and welded in some really thick steel to get it safe again. Fortunately as it was only the underside of the spine that was rotten he didn't need to remove the pans or body to repair it.

I do miss the old girl and would have another but I think I'd go for something totally inpractical like a buggy or sand-rail instead. 😀

I occasionally commute 13 miles each way n my 1982 VW transporter. this costs me about £10 a go at the moment. I usually cycle instead, maybe thats the answer? Failing that, can I suggest the following... Mk2 Escort RS200, Mk2 fiesta XR2, Peugeot 205 GTI, Mini, some kind of military vehicle (I so nearly bought an APC as my first car!) or, most practical, a toyota Hilux pick up truck, in red converted to run on veggie oil, given that our local nutter insists that the arabs are going save all their oil "for the war, and stop selling it to the west, and civil war will break out in the uk and we need to arm ourselves now!" Everyone knows, real militia men drive Hilux's...

Anyone suggesting an Escort as a Beetle alternative needs their head checking. A 2 door MK1 or MK2 in good nick with some nice bits can easily change hands for 10K. Even RS Turbos are proper money these days.

The old Fiestas are now being bought up by the more hipstery yoofs.

I personally wouldn't be able to resist a 2 litre Nova, in white with the blister arches. But I'm odd like that.

I had an old beetle and only a 5 mile commute- in the winter the ice was justing to melt off the windscreen as I pulled onto the car park!!

Also had a moggie minor which tbh was alot more reliable (whilst not as cool had the option of starting with a crank handle which I thought was cool on a pub car park once in a while!

This one wasn't too slow.