Bug Out Beetle

Too soon for the Beach?

2025-02-12T10:53:00.004-05:00

Herbie Mania

2025-01-19T21:52:00.002-05:00

'Love Bug Day' at Disneyland - 1969

2025-01-18T21:40:00.001-05:00

10 Lovely Facts About Jim's '63 VW Bug "Herbie" - The Love Bug

2024-12-15T16:31:00.001-05:00

The Love Bug | Unofficial Official Trailer | Disney+

2024-12-14T16:05:00.002-05:00

The Bug: Life And Times Of The People's Car (2016) | Full Documentary

2023-07-11T10:18:00.001-04:00

Good Day Sunshine

2022-04-30T16:23:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd start up the Bug today just to keep the juices on a nice sunny New England spring day. Still on the cool side but nice enough to be outside for a bit. I had nothing big was planned for the VW, just like turn it over and run it a bit. Getting married in less than a month so money and time are tight lately as one might expect.

A few pumps of the gas pedal, turn the key and she still starts up nice. Still love the sound of an air-cooled VW with that familiar putter. I've seen some now converting their classic VW's to electric motors. I don't see the sense of it as part of the appeal, for me at least, is the familiar sound of the engine. Electric automobiles may be a thing of the future but I think it's silly to convert these to electric, such a waste. To each their own I guess. I'll stop yelling at the clouds now. Happy motoring this year. I'll be around.

Hope Springs Eternal

2022-04-21T13:34:00.003-04:00

It was nice recently to uncover my Bug and get it started. I put the battery, which had been on a trickle charger the last couple of months, back in. Sprayed some starter fluid in the carb. Cranked the pulley a bit to make sure it still turned. I hopped inside, gave the pedal a few pumps, turned the key and it turned right over. Not bad for a 48-year-old automobile. It ran fine for a while but then ran into a stalling issue. This was something that started late last year. I plan to overhaul the carb because I think it may be causing it to stall.

Also on the agenda is a general tuning and valve adjustment. The front end needs attention as has some shaking around 50mph. A good wash and wax would be nice too. No problem, now just finding the time to them is the hardest part, oh well. Hope springs eternal as the saying goes.

VOLKSWAGEN FACTORY PRODUCTION OF VW BUGS, MICROBUS, FASTBACK WOLFSBU...

2022-01-13T13:21:00.001-05:00

Abandoned VW Beetle Built Into Iconic Movie Car | Junk Yard To Show Car ...

2021-11-10T10:02:00.000-05:00

Hot VWs Magazine: Rare Vintage Air VW Club Cruise

2021-03-31T10:21:00.000-04:00

WILL IT RUN? abandoned 26 years ago. mouse infested vw bug

2021-03-23T10:38:00.002-04:00

Hot VWs Magazine: Legacy Cars & Coffee 9 Autobahn

2021-03-20T22:42:00.002-04:00

VW Beetle and Golf (Rabbit) Crash Test

2021-03-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

Are Bugs safe? I've seen this debated about in VW pages and forums. Some still go under the guise of "They don't build'em like they used to.". It seems some get blinded by their love of the iconic Beetle(or other VW's) and not be realistic on the actual safety of driving these every day. As a VW Beetle owner/driver/enthusiast I love VW's too so I understand the affection and attraction these vehicles have. I previously wrote about this covering Ralph Nader's book "Small on Safety" so you can check that out too. It is interesting to see how these acted in a crash test.

Harry the Swinger!

2021-03-18T13:54:00.005-04:00

Poor Harry!

Hot VWs Magazine: Bring VW Back to Life! Volkswagen Never Dies!

2021-03-16T10:59:00.002-04:00

It's great to see VW's brought back to life. A Super Beetle at that.

VW (3 in 1) Scale Model Kit Review

2021-03-14T18:28:00.002-04:00

Hot VWs Magazine: 50 Years of Jim Job's Volkswagen Life with Bus and Bug

2021-03-14T14:58:00.000-04:00

JBugs - 1967 VW Beetle - Ball Joint Replacement

2021-01-13T13:21:00.002-05:00

Classic VW BuGs 1967 EURO 1500 RHD FOUND! - Shipped to The Beetle Shop

2020-12-30T12:52:00.001-05:00

1970 Volkswagen Classic Beetle Restoration - Vintage Model Car Restoration

2020-09-17T13:25:00.001-04:00

Driving a Classic VW Beetle for the First Time

2020-08-16T13:29:00.001-04:00

VW Beetle Full Yearly Service Tune Up DIY! Easy!

2020-05-13T10:39:00.001-04:00

Small--On Safety: The Designed-In Dangers of the Volkswagen by Center for Auto Safety (Ralph Nader)

2020-03-24T11:57:00.000-04:00

Small--On Safety: The Designed-In Dangers of the Volkswagen by Center for Auto Safety
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ralph Nader is more well known for his book "Unsafe at any speed" which focus on the Chevrolet Corvair. What is probably less known is that he also targeted the Volkswagen's of the era. Some of the issues they found were the vehicles vulnerability to crosswind's, ejection during a rear-end collision, door latches that popped open easily in an accident and a poorly designed gas cap that could easily pop off. His harshest criticism was for VW Microbus which they thought should be taken off the roads completely citing it's almost complete lack "crush distance" the occupant has in a front end collision. This was even more vulnerable crosswinds due to it's light weight and slab sides.

A big issue I detected was not just that these vehicles had legitimate safety issues it was the slow response of the manufacturer in addressing and fixing these issues. Of course reading about automotive safety of the period most manufacturers were slow to fix items. Few even wanted to admit vehicles could be unsafe in any way often fearing it would hurt sales. In this light one could hardly point to Volkswagen as being the only automaker guilty of not addressing safety issues fast enough.

This was published in 1972 and I think by this time many of the issues were address by Volkswagen and didn't seem to hurt sales as I believe 72-73 were some of their biggest sales years. In any even Volkswagen was changing to more conventionally designed water cooled cars like the the Golf(aka: Rabbit in the USA) and by the end of the decade the Beetle was gone from the American market although it was still produced elsewhere up until 2003.

I became aware of this book after reading about other asking if these classic Volkswagen were safe for new drivers and is it okay for daily driving. As a VW enthusiast myself (I own a 74 Beetle) I was curious too. Even after reading this I still love the car. I would say this though I'd be hesitant to recommend these for brand new drivers or for daily driving. They are nowhere near as safe as today's vehicles with airbags and crumple zones engineered in. A stock air cooled VW is also very slow to keep up in today's congested streets. I've been a driver for over 3 decades and I'm hesitant to drive mine in heavy traffic. They also need a lot of hands on maintenance and they accelerate very slowly. To me these are classic collectables left to drive on weekend's unless you work five minutes down the street. This is just my two cents as I'm sure others may disagree.

I'd say this book would be an interest to Volkswagen enthusiasts just to be aware of the issues they had. I wouldn't stop driving one because of this book. These classic vehicles aren't driven as much as they used to.

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Why fighting the coronavirus depends on you

2020-03-17T01:29:00.001-04:00