cars with soul, cars devoid of personality...its all been discussed to death...a common thread seems to be that the original beetle has soul or character...why is this..what give this wee car a personality...discuss.....
I've often wondered this my self. I've been a massive beetle fan since I was about 10 and still can't figure exactly why.
I've had two, both of which ended up scrapped through my incompetence and i still genuinely feel bad about it. It's almost like kicking a puppy sending a vw to the scrap, because they have got that character.
I think the look of it plays a big part, there's something friendly about it, other cars are intimidating, or sleek or purposeful but bugs are just wee curvy cheerful things. They just look like they have a personality.
They also don't pretend to be anything that they're not, your run of the mill bug isn't an autobahn stormer or a b-road blaster but nobody's even claimed they are, they just tootle along forever with that glorious air-coold rattle.
The fact that they are so old and idiosyncratic now just adds to the character, everyone's bug has its own wee foibles, just like people.
Bugs and minis are similar in the way that they were designed as utilitarian cars to make transport more available to the masses and maybe that's why we love em so much, so many people's first cars have been one or t'other and we develop an affinity with them.
I think the fact they can be all things to all men helps too. Your aging tofu eating hippy can toddle about in her mid 70s 1302 with holes everywhere while yer surfer dude sticks his board on top and runs his cal look '67 to the sun every summer. Tuners can have a hoot playing with the engines and there are so many bodykits that even Novaboy could have fun with one.If you want to be stupid you can stick in a big ole type 2 engine and some NOS and take it to Santa Pod and the purists can spend years restoring them to their original condition once everyone else has finished dicking around with them.
It's funny that a car commissioned by one of the biggest hate-mongers ever can bring so many people together. I'm determined to have another and actually get it on the road for more than a weekend.
Originally posted by Palmira: Its the shape, and its disarming personality that it was a car available to all in an austere time.
Yet I find the Beetle rather austere? Quite a gloomy cabin, small windscreen gives the impression of driving a post box!
The shape is seen as distinctive, but was it outstanding for the time? Lots of cars with similar appeal? Renault 4CV, Citroen 2CV, Fiat Nuova 500, Morris Minor, etc.
Perhaps much of the beetles cult status was simply down to the clever self deprciating advertising and its adoption by the hippie set?
This is the strange thing - the Beetle wasnt revolutionary in its day, people bought it DESPITE its looks, now people buy it BECAUSE of its looks.
I agree being unkind to a beetle is like kicking a puppy, i felt sad for cutting that body off the donor for our beach buggy.
The front bumper fell off & the pressed steel license plate CALIFORNIA 459 TCA hit the ground clang. It was like i was tearing its heart to bits.
Remember the Herbie movies? What better car to personify than the Beetle? It fitted its role perfectly, it was sensitive & took everything personally, got angry and jealous regularly, inflicted revenge on people who looked down on it, and even fell in love with a Lancia Beta Montecarlo.
They look animated and how can you dislike them? Theyre horrid to drive and slow, noisy and very small... yet loveable.
I think the hippy thing comes from its origin as a communist car for the masses, all the same, people power etc....
Yup, you've got to hand it to the advertisers they knew what they were doing. I remember one, not so outright p1sstaking, about the snowplough driver and how he got to work in the bad weather, obviously he had a bug. it was just quite a clever way of putting across the reliable vw image. That and the marty feldman one which still scares me to this day.
I don't think the shape was necessarily outstanding, like you say there were other curvy cars out at the same time but all the ones mentioned also tend to be seen as characterful wee motors. Plus show anyone a pic of a bug and they'll know what kinda car it is.
Skoda kinda carried that on recently with their some people forget it's a skoda ads, playing on their poor image like the bug and its funny looks.
Ah herbie, you know that's one of only 2 films ever to bring a tear to my eye. Honestly, when as a kid i saw that clapped out old bug roll off the scrapheap i blubbed.
Exactly! And going through Puerto Rico with all that dirt out of the river all over it...
How do you think i felt putting an angle grinder through our forlorn-looking 2.0 automatic?!
Herbie were my absolute favorite as a kid. Classic doesnt even describe it. Watched them all over & over. - It was very clever & they personified the right aspects of the Beetle.
When i was at school, they taught German, and the teacher held up cards to explain what was what in German,... the card which said "Das Auto" showed a cartoon orange Beetle.
Beetles are a kind of default car. If you came from a different planet, and landed on earth, & wanted to know what a "Car" was, youd be shown a beetle.
911s are evergreen for more or less the same reason... its the same thing but with 6 cylinders.
Hang on! That's it! It's the blooming herbie movies innit? They gave the car a personality and we bought it hook, line and sinker.
I'm unsure about the whole beach buggy thing, in someways i don't think it's so bad. Really all you're doing is giving it plastic surgery, a nice buggy body like the GP still has a beetle look. Plus it's a good way to keep one on the road if the body's started to rot. New skin but the same old heart.
comparison too a dog is pretty apt..yer dog is always happy too see ya, no matter how foul a mood yer in, you can always rely on yer dog and yer dog always cheerss ya up...and nine times out of ten, yer dog is a pretty simple creature too....iv had loads of cars and the beetle really got to me...i cried when i sold it..pathetic really, but there ya go....
Beetles are one of those cars that I can sort of see the facination - but the reality just misses the mark for me.
I know a few people who are really into them.
One just loves the Cal look and runs this increadibly slow one that looks the business, but is painfully slow.
Another has a Porsche engined one, Fuchs alloys but looks pretty standard. It sounds like it should be a flying machine on paper, but it never seems that quick. (It could just be his driving !)
Mind I get all misty eyed at FIAT 500's and eveyone thinks I've lost the plot ! My mate has a 600D for sale at the minute and he talks about it like one of his children. I went to see it when he bought it and we stood there admring it like it was a Maserati Any potential buyers go through background checks that would put an adoption interview to shame.
..its the air cooled thing bro...i love 500's/600's, tatras, beetles, porsches, corvairs, 2cv, gsa...somethin about that clatter and thrum thats so reassuring...apparently bono was a big aircooled fan...THAT album was originally gonna be called clatter and thrum....
Originally posted by biggbn: ..its the air cooled thing bro...i love 500's/600's, tatras, beetles, porsches, corvairs, 2cv, gsa...somethin about that clatter and thrum thats so reassuring...apparently bono was a big aircooled fan...THAT album was originally gonna be called clatter and thrum....
Family member in Houston Tx had a neighbor across the street whose driveway had a derelict Corvair in it. When i used to drive round there to visit, i always used to say id like to buy it, trailer it away & restore it - to which the family member said "its a piece of crap, let it to rot"... harsh, i thought because i like corvairs!
Any potential buyers go through background checks that would put an adoption interview to shame.
