My first car was a baby blue ‘71 Super Beetle, in 1987. It was payment of a debt; after a bunch of us students helped my high school math teacher put an addition on his house. He helped me work on it some too.
It was basic transportation during college, to get back and forth to home and my grandparents’ for food and laundry, and it was fine for that. It was beat, and it was weird. It had the Automatic Stick Shift, which is a very cool idea that had some issues in practice. ASS ran off the vacuum system, and in an older car rubber hoses aren’t always in great shape, so I was always chasing down leaks. When it worked, it worked fine. No clutch pedal; grab the stick and wait a second for the system to notice, and then move to the appropriate gear.
Other lines had issues too; the washer fluid ran off air pressure from the spare tire, so you had to keep it full for everything to work (and had to have a useful spare). Once I forgot to put a screwdriver in my toolbox in the “frunk” –we never called it that back then– and it bounced around and pierced the washer fluid line, leading to blue moisture up front. Another time, while on the far side of town, I pushed the brake pedal and it went all the way to the floor. Got it home by driving slowly, downshifting often, and occasionally dragging my foot out the door like Fred Flintstone. Got it to a shop where they replaced the bad line, then whenever they tested it, the rest of the lines blew out one by one. A major expense for a broke student, but the shop worked with me (and is still around and community-oriented 40 years later).
The Beetle was a good car. Bigger inside than you’d think, plenty of headroom and legroom. More heat got to the driver than in the Bus I had a few years later. Overheated in hot weather if in traffic; it was an old aircooled car, after all, and without a little motion, it was not happy. I started learning how to fix things, change oil, etc., and I still have a few parts as souvenirs. I learned of all the sources, and relative quality of Germany, Spain, Brazil, spares and more. I learned to carry spare parts. I liked that I could get a little stool and sit right behind the engine and work.
The wipers went out on a road trip; I found I could reach out the side window and move them back and forth on the flat windshield fairly easily, which got me to where I could look at the issue. Turned out to be a washer clip holding the wiper to the motor. Easy fix.
Harder to fix was the rot. Small patches I could take care of. But the underside was rusting away. I took it to a cheap shop and they welded things together to get me by. It was clunky looking and heavy, but sturdy.
Behind my uncle’s limo- he had a side gig in his spare time from being a firefighter.
On the road it was… slow but steady. Susceptible to crosswinds, whether from a semi or just wind. Once, atop an overpass in northwestern Ohio in the winter, the wind pushed me from one lane into another before I could correct by turning the wheel hard over. Luckily, no one was beside me.
You’ve heard they float? They do. Part of the time, I worked mornings, driving to work at 5 am in the dark. At one point my route went under a railroad overpass, and one morning rain from earlier had filled up the depression. I didn’t see it till too late, hit it at 35mph, and plowed right across with the wheels off the road, thankfully having enough momentum to get to the other side. Didn’t even have any wet spots inside, and just drove on to work.
When I got another car for a trip across the country, I sold it to another student for $100. He asked, “Why so cheap?” and was suspicious. I had gotten it essentially for free, not put a huge amount of money into it, and didn’t need it anymore. I told him everything that was wrong with it and what had been repaired. I hope it served him well.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1966 VW 1300 – The Best Beetle Of Them All; Or At Least The Sportiest
Curbside Classic Driving Review: 1969 VW Beetle – Still A Viable Driver?
Curbside Classic: 1946 Volkswagen 1100 (Type 11): The Beetle Crawls Out Of The Rubble
Great story.
The windscreen washers! On my Bay window van the water bottle was in the footwell and had to be pressurised to make them squirt, one squirt and you were done. The pipe ran round the dash to the wiper stalk. Used to carry a bicycle tyre pump and a bottle of water.
Wow! The system in mine was high-tech by comparison.
Always considered Beetles to be weak, rough, noisy, clattery things… until I rode in a friend’s Super Beetle and discovered it left all that unpleasantness behind… and was sufficiently powerful…
I had my preconceptions in the ’80s, but it was basically a free car so… And it was not what I expected. Much bigger inside than I assumed. Not as great mileage as I’d hoped. Comfy enough and handled, well, well enough. I certainly learned a lot about cars, and aircooled engines, and weird tech.
My first car was the baby blue ’73 curved windshield, 3-pedal version.
Cool!
The curved windshield is the first thing I think about when a Super Beetle is discussed. In the first two years, the Super Beetle had a flat windshield, just like any other Type 1.
It was 1972 when the curved windshield version showed up.
Yep, mine was flat. One of the ways I ID the year, along with taillights, etc.
Bought a 71 super new and had a love hate relationship with it. Was happy with the 28 mpg that I got. Now have a Mazda3 with auto and air and average 36 mpg. It was a blast to drive in snow, one time I put it in gear and pushed to get it unstuck. Once it was going I ran and jumped in. It came with bias ply tires and when I put radials on it made a world of difference. Only had one issue in the 91k miles I put on it, so I didn’t have to face all the problems you did. An oil change at the dealer was 2.92, times have changed.
$2.92! I did mine, only took it to a shop for larger issues. It was fine as a first car, fairly reliable. But not something I’d daily now.
I DD’d “Eeyore,” my stock ’64 (6v), in ATL rush-hour traffic for six years in the late 1990s. I was a lot younger then! Seems like I was changing the oil about once every 5-6 weeks – always did the valves, too, while I had it on the jacks.
Awesome! Looks sharp.
Yeah, I always did the valves at the same time. They needed checked.
Sweet!
Still dailying my Ghia…
I’ll be fitting an electric washer pump this year though!
Mechanical parts are readily available and relatively cheap and the car’s simplicity means it is dependable and DIYable if something does break.
I don’t have a long commute or put my family in it though.
Yeah, I’d still like to have one, but not as a daily. A friend, or anyway his family, had a Karmann Ghia around the same time. Much nicer looking than the Beetle!
I’ve never driven one of those “autostick” VWs, although I will admit to being fascinated by the concept as a kid. The Autostick badge was intriguing to me and I remember asking my dad how it worked. He had no idea since he’d never driven one either. So I let it drop. Thanks for reminding me, and for offering the explanation. Ran off of the vacuum system? I don’t even want to think about how prone to problems that could have been.
It sounds like your Beetle had good carma. Given to you in trade for work, your passing it along to someone in need…I’m guessing you’re correct and it may still be puttering around somewhere. In a better climate than Ohio.
Great story.
Autostick was a little weird, but in general worked well. Touching the stick was like pressing the clutch pedal; there was a slight delay (less than a second, probably less than half a second but it’s been almost 40 years so I can’t trust my memory) and then you could move into another gear. Took a little getting used to. And my left foot stomped out of habit for a long time.
It was pretty rusty underneath. I did what I could to stabilize it. I hope he got decent use out of it, at least.
While it wasn’t my first car, my ’71 Super was one that had the most (mis?) adventures. Kept a throttle cable, clutch cable, fuel filters and a belt in it at all times. Plus a “carb repair kit” consisting of two part epoxy, index card, Popsicle stick, and a dime. The only time it stranded me for longer than a few minutes was when the clutch pedal pawl started tearing off the rod.
Purchased it from a very cool SF cab driver who published a ‘zine. He was the last in a series of roommates who owned the thing, the eighth resident of that house if I remember the story right. $700 in 1997, found it on Usenet. Sold it to a friend two years later for $700. He sold it to his father. Photo is from the last time I saw the car in 2005.
From what I remember, there were lots of deferred maintenance things that needed to happen, but none were too expensive. All the steering bushings, clutch pedal rod/pawl welded, welded the fan back onto the collet, muffler, brakes, throttle cable, another dime in the carburetor, and innumerable fuel filters… It would have been much worse if I didn’t live walking distance to Donsco at the time.
We had 2 VW Super Bug$. A ’70, then a ’73 that sort of replaced the stolen, but recovered, ’70 with nu METALFLAKE oil. The ’70 was the pathetically SLOW Auto Stick. I couldn’t afford the extra $150 (IIRC) the A/S cost for the ’73; therefore she had to learn how to drive a stick. My wife did….after I purchased the ’73. Yup, she really liked them: they were “personal” to her!
The pic shows her nu ’73; even a poor Art Center student could sort of afford! 🙂
My daily transportation was my beloved ’56 Chevy 150 with the ’66 327 I put in her. DFO
Our “71, Fastback” was about this color blue. “Wstrn PA”, was tough it. Rust, for sure was an issue.
My first car was a new ’71 Super Beetle. I really miss it, though it’s as much the time of your life as it is the car. Like you Mark, so many memories with this car.
This Super wasn’t as hardy a car as what we’ve come to expect these days. The washer reservoir pressure problem plagued the car from new, and I finally just did without the windshield washer until I saw that earlier Beetles just had a Schrader valve mounted on the reservoir, and modified mine with a valve I got in the junkyard. Problem solved. Leaky struts and wheel balance sensitivity were issues, too. Still, I’d take that car back in a heartbeat today.