Right off the bat, I’m going to say that I was never a fan of the old VW Beetle back in my yoot, even though I did own one briefly #Poverty. Yes they were cute, but the body shape was ugly and the interior did nothing to excite me. Best of all was the Beetle’s famed reliability, but that wasn’t enough to get me to keep it.
But I have to say that this one at Hemmings caught my eye:
It’s a 1964 vintage body, fitted with a ’74 1600cc engine. That engine, for that time and for that company, was quite a beast, most assuredly compared to its predecessors.
And I love that candy-apple red color and those rear wheel covers. The only thing missing are the flip-out indicators on the door column, then and now a lovely feature of the Beetle — I’m not sure whether they’d been taken off by 1964, though.
The listed price is just under $23,000. Ask me whether I’d rather drive that than a secondhand “modern” car for the same price…
Those flip-out indicators were called Trafficators and were found on pre 1960 VW’s. They were lit but didn’t flash. They were inset to the B pillar which probably didn’t weaken the column that much, but Today’s safety Natzi’s would likely disapprove.
Bettles were fun because you could drive them ‘Flat -out’ almost everywhere. Well…… not just could, but pretty much had to.
Just remember, you live in Dallas area of Texas and the Bug has no A/C. Cute as it may be, it ain’t gonna be a daily driver for any old farts around here. I could handle it as a teenager, but not anymore. I gots to have my A/C. For that $23k I’d rather have a straight-six Mustang of similar vintage with A/C, either original or retrofit.
Good looking car. I never owned one but had the reputation of a fairly good VW mechanic back in the day. I did minor work like a tune up or oil change for a six pack of cheap beer (all that any of us could afford). Major stuff cost at least a case. Most fun project was rebuilding an engine that had swallowed a valve. Our work bench was the kitchen table in a second floor apartment in Saratoga .Springs NY in the middle of February. If I told the back story on that I’d probably still go to jail. As I recall the motor job cost a case of Michelob and a fifth of Jack Daniels.
A VW would be a four month a year car here in Oklahoma. In my dotage I like to feel cold air coming out of the vents, and not just when the heater was turned to full blast