Faults:

Fan Belt snapped at 140,000.

That's it!

General Comments:

Classic air cooled fun.

Slow.

Noisy.

Uncomfortable.

Cold in the winter.

But really, who cares, you get that one day in the summer when the whole thing makes sense, Windows down trundling around, feeling very special.

I will give you an example, I popped to the shop to buy some milk last summer, at the shop I saw a couple of my friends talking so I parked up next to them to have a chat, not one person passed comment on their vehicles (Mercedes CLK Kompressor and Jaguar X type) But, children pointed and stared, teenagers pointed and wanted to lower it!, older people wanted to talk to me about the beetle that they used to run which never let them down, Fantastic!

Talking of never letting you down, you will notice that I have been fairly harsh on this car as far as comfort and performance goes, It does however get full marks for reliability. Again I will illustrate this with an example, Last October (2003) I parked the car in my garden and left it. Last weekend (March 2004) I needed to move it, so I retired to the shed to get a battery charger. For a laugh I thought I would try to start it before charging the battery, to my surprise the thing turned over, and on the third attempt burst into life! Five months of neglect just shrugged off amazing.

Faults:

A few minor cosmetic issues were present. Firstly, I had to deal with some minor rust that the previous owner had neglected to remove before painting the car. The turn signals didn't work when the headlights were on either. The interior was VERY shabby as well.

All of these problems are soon to be fixed, as I am doing a complete rebuild of the entire car now.

General Comments:

This is one fine economy car, I wouldn't have picked anything else for my first vehicle.

Faults:

Replaced three fuel pumps.

Rewired turn signals. This was the hardest job of any I ever did.

New carb needed after first 5 years.

Rust in rear floorboards. One hole, I super-glued a quarter over after sanding and painting the edges of the hole.

Accelerator cable broke once on the highway. Luckily, I carried a spare with me, having heard of the potential. It was back up and running in about 10 minutes, and I wasn't late for class.

The "Biggie": Blew the engine on the way home one night. No oil light, no warning, just lots of noise and lots of smoke, and then... silence... except for my explitives. Got another bug (73 Super Beetle) for US$200, stripped it of its engine (I preferred the Standard body style), and continued on my way after a few days of down time.

General Comments:

A hard car to kill.

It gets very warm in the Central Texas summer, but stays very warm through the winter.

For the original $1000 I paid for it, it lasted well-past its prime. I racked up thousands of miles on it traversing Texas and New Mexico. It was my first true love. I will have another some day.

Faults:

Nothing although the head lights would slowly dim to off after approx 20mins, but if turned off and then on again would be fine again for another 20mins. Took to various specialists over the years, but cause was never found.

General Comments:

Very nice cult car although pedals took time to get used to.

Not the fastest of vehicles, but it was never meant to be.

Very reliable except for the lighting gremlin. When I finally parted with it I had left it standing in a old barn for 2 years. A new battery and rotor arm were fitted and it fired up after two turns.