Beetle Original (VW Beetle (Original))

Member Name: lamorna

Product:	VW Beetle (Original)
Date:	16/07/00 (495 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: tons

Seeing as I'm not a car person, and never will be, I certainly seem to have owned nearly every 'popular' classic, and paid the price in doing so.

I bought a brand new, red, shiny original Beetle in the seventies, and hated every second driving it.

The foot controls were in such an awkward position, that I had to hang my feet in the air, poised for action, with resulting ankle ache.

The noise of the air cooled engine was mind blowing. Those who knew would tell me it had been 'run in on the bench' which meant nothing to me at all. Though I now gather it meant something to do with the engine, as cars used to have a sticker in the rear window telling other motorists, they were driving slowly as they were 'running in!' Bit like a man with a red flag walking in front of it.

The seats were horrendously uncomfortable for driver and passengers, though somehow or other I used to squeeze a carry-cot, complete with baby, into the back seat.....poor kid, she's still alive to tell the tale about me and cars!

Worst of all, the petrol tank had to be filled from within the front bonnet (where the engine should have been). The bonnet stuck shut so many times, with an empty petrol tank, and no way of getting to it, that those were the years I formed such a close relationship with the AA, and due to my misfortune of owning so many of these types of cars, a relationship that has lasted to this day!!!

At that time, owning an original Beetle had no prestige attached to it. That's only happened in later years, and in my opinion, a very misplaced over romanticised notion indeed.

My then husband, was driving the Beetle along the Brighton Road and had a bad accident and wrote the car off.

Inflation must have been gathering force then, or the price of imported cars had increased, but whatever, we got more from the Insurance Company than we'd paid for it a year earlier.

Wit
h the money we bought a brand new maroon Vauxhall, but that's another car story.......

Summary: