Wednesday, August 15, 2018

1965 VW Bug: My parents wanted me to have an economical car for college

My parents wanted me to have an economical car for college when I turned 18. So, when I graduated from a private church school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that summer they wanted me to trade in my 1956 Ford Station Wagon that I called my "Surf Wagon" then for a VW Bug which got 30 miles per gallon or more of gas. For example, I could drive to Mt. Shasta from Glendale in this for less than 10 dollars then. I just calculated that it took 20 gallons to drive to Shasta at 30 miles per gallon if Shasta was 600 miles from Glendale. According to Google maps it's 598 miles so likely 20 gallons from there in a bug then. Actually if I bought gas at .17 cents a gallon it only cost me 3 dollars and 40 cents to drive to Mt. Shasta from Glendale then in a bug. I used my bug a lot like people use 4 wheel drives now too because I was young and about 6 foot 5 inches tall and slim then at about 172 pounds but very strong. So, I could grab the front bumper and lift the car off the ground and walk it around if I got stuck so I could drive out of snow or mud if I got stuck. Because of the high ground clearance and rear wheel drive with the engine above, it acted a lot like a 4 wheel drive off road a lot. It also had a very low 1st gear so you could almost drive it straight up with a gear that low. Since I was making three times minimum wage at 16 I was making 3 dollars an hour then so it only took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to make the 3 dollars and 40 cents it took to drive my car to Mt. Shasta then too. Different times! Also, because it is air cooled it will start when nothing else will when it's cold. The only draw back is if you are going to drive where it is really hot then you might need an oil cooler in extreme heat not to overheat your engine. An oil cooler metal and has fins and takes the oil outside the car to cool it in the winds the car makes driving down the road. What is interesting about a VW Bug then was that it was very roomy for someone my size. As long as you were tall but not real wide a Bug was great to travel in even at 6 foot 5 inches tall. I drove my 2nd one (a 1966 Bug) all the way to New Mexico to visit a Girlfriend and to visit a friends in Utah. I remember playing my guitar at night and singing and driving the bug with my knees while driving on a road about 100 miles where there were no cities or towns much when the road was basically straight and on the level so it was safe to do this. Both my 1965 and my 1966 VW Bugs were Seablau (Blue) and had white interiors.




Image result for 1965 vw beetle

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