1975 Volkswagen Beetle 1.5 from North America
Summary:
Total trash, overpriced, hippy piece of crap
Faults:
This was by far, the worst car I have ever owned. It barely ran when I bought it for $1500, but my friends had convinced me that Beetles were easy to work on, and I could easily fix it up.
It turned out the engine leaked oil profusely from everywhere, and got worse gas mileage than a full sized pick up, and barely had the power of a small motorcycle. Ah, the myth of German engineering!!
It was a short lived experiment. I had spent several weekends and made several trips to a German auto parts store, replacing the distributor and various body parts, and on a sunny Sunday morning, I decided to take it out for a drive, and the engine just died next to a farm field. The owner of the field said I had to remove the car. I was so fed up with this piece of junk taking up all my time, that I told him he could keep the Beetle for free, which he accepted. He then pushed it behind a barn, and it was sitting there for many years after... Every time I would drive by, that worthless piece of German engineering was there, reminding me not to believe in German engineering ever again...
General Comments:
Total trash! Stay away from German cars, you will be working on it every weekend, it will leak oil all over your drive way, and parts will cost an arm and a leg. German engineering is a myth.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 3rd March, 2012
3rd Mar 2012, 11:47
My first car was a '75 Bug, it was a fine car after pouring a ton of cash and time into it (before hand it didn't run). Funny thing is, it cost me $1500! Beetles are easy to work on, but unless if you're really into it, it's not worth it.
Later I got a '69 Fastback, same story as the one you posted except I sold it to get some cash back. It ran on 3-cylinders, leaked oil onto the engine (thus causing smoke-screens at random), had no brakes, smelled of gasoline inside of it, and had a wide deadzone in the loose steering wheel. And to boot, Type 3s are a pain to work on!
Germans can design good cars, but they don't hold-up for squat. Re-pro VW parts are rubbish, since they don't always fit and do often cost quite a bit. Doesn't help that used parts are pricey too (most VW buffs are very greedy).
If you see this comment, please do reply as I'd enjoy a chat.
I've heard so much babble on how VWs and German engineering are great, it's nice to hear a different point of view.