I bought my first car, a '65 beetle, in high school three years ago and drive it almost every day. Everything I know about cars now came from wrenching on my bug and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Gets me where I need to go and always puts a smile on peoples faces as you drive by. Wish mine could be as nice as this one but you do what you can with a college budget. As always love your videos and glad to finally see a beetle on here!
I remember a friend's Mother having a VW Bug in the 80's I cant remember the year, they used to call it a Puddle Jumper. I remember going from Wangaratta down to Phillip Island in it way back then it would have been around 400 Km each way.
This video really took me back. When I graduated from high school , I traded in a Chevy Vega on a brand new 1973 Super Beetle. Cost me 2,800 dollars. Drove it for 11 years. Wish I still had it today.
As the owner of a '62 Beetle with a 1600 single port, I do NOT recommend exceeding 65 mph. Above 65, the steering becomes like submitting your computer for an IT service ticket. You may get a response, but it's more likely you won't. Great video Tedward!
Hello from Sweden! Whatever you mean by barefoot? This is my original setup (with absolutely original rubber) for my 1303 -75 drive.google.com/file/d/12WTiRlW4rdmjvwS1l7iuBBcQH6A3kdIK/view?usp=sharing@@brentboswell1294
I owned a brand new 1973 orange Super Beetle. Most dependable car, never broke down on me leaving me stranded. They came with a tool kit and spare drive belt. They need basic maintenance that is very easy for anyone to do themselves. I dove a total of 90 miles a day to and from work for 8 years in that car. It truly was a people’s car.
LOVE YOUR CAR . I AM AN EIGHTY YEARS YOUNG MAN FROM BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND.. BOUGHT MY FIRST BEETLE IN 1965 AND LOVED IT SO MUCH I ENDED UP WITH FOUR MORE OVER MANY YEARS OF MY YOUTH.. MY LAST ONE IN 1973 WAS AN EXACT REPLICA OF YOUR ORANGE LITTLE GEM... CHERISED MEMORIES OF DAYS LONG AGO.. Eugene Martin.
Wow, did this ever get my attention. I bought an exact duplicate to this ‘74 Super Beetle in 1978 from the original owners, my parents’ next door neighbors. It was my second car and I can’t put into words how much enjoyment I got out of that car. My girlfriend and I drove the wheels off of it, but we pampered it. I’ve always missed that little car, and seeing this one restored makes me miss it all the more. Truly one of my favorite cars I’ve ever owned, and I’ve owned a bunch of them.
I've been waiting for this video! I own a 1973 beetle that I got after my grandfather and I love it to death. I daily drive it, take it on many long road trips and even occasionally track it. This video made my day and made me feel very proud to own one of these. Thank you Tedward! Love from Thailand.
40 years ago, I learned to drive with a Beetle. I would guess now people learn to drive stick with a Civic. VW's were great to learn on because you had to make the car do anything. I remember when ours was replace with 1977 Rabbit 4 speed. It would go, steer and stop with heat available in the winter! I remember the days of wear gloves and a parka inside the car in winter keeping it in neutral until the gearbox warmed up and having a scraper handy to clean the inside of the windshield. But it always started and never got stuck in the snow. I went on a trip once from Ontario to Pennsylvania up and down the hills to State College. We would be going flat out down the hills the watch the speedo dropping up the climbs 50-45-40-35...Some how we made it in one piece.
Dave. Your a real Beetle owner. That ice scraper for the inside windshield was a necessity if you lived anywhere where temperatures got below freezing. I discovered this after a move from Texas to Ohio in the late sixties.
6:50 "The brand coined by their leader" was the Kraft durch Freude, the power through joy. Look how well the RAD, the labor union did its job. We should be so lucky.
Brings found memories of my old Jeans, Drove it on a daily bases for 3 years as my first car, it was awesome. Sadly was stolen on my 23rd Birthday in 2003 while we were out having a meal and she was later found 10 miles up the road burned to the ground, R.I.P Jeanie
I've never even driven a Beetle, but I've seen so much deep maintenance stuff (Even how to completely rebuild the engine) that I could take the whole thing apart and put it back together.
In 1972 . My 1st NEW CAR was a 1972 "Orange" Super Beetle. 2 weeks into ownership, I rolled it over. State Patrol sates " 4 to 6 rolls". Yes, I was doing 80 mph down hill and ran up on a blind curve known locally as "Blind Mans Curve". It was repaired, but it drove like a matchbox after that. However, I drove that thing for another 6 years. Junked it and bought a Porsche 914-6. That's when the fun really started~~!I'm 70 years young now and I still drive Porsches .. But, it all started with a VW Beetle.
My first new car was a 1975 Le Grande Bug, the blue one. It came with a rosewood dash, rack and pinion steering, sunroof, corduroy/leatherette upholstery, and it was the first year it included fuel injection. The differences between this 74 and my 75, was the rack and pinion steering and the fuel injection which gave it a couple more horsepower. The top speed AND cruising speed was actually 81mph. On a straight flat road. But you could drive them flat out all day, which was maybe barely 4000 rpm. And I took that thing from Vancouver to Mexico, Vancouver to the east coast and back through the Midwest. It was great on the highway, it would just settle down and go for hours. Plus the seats were very comfortable, and you sat quite high. The best car ever.
What a wonderful drive in an iconic little car! The owner did a beautiful job on this true and detailed restoration. The sound we hear in this video is exactly the way it was back in the day of the ever willing air cooled engine. I believe the color is “clementine”. Enjoy this Wonderful VW!
Thanks William! I'm the owner. Clementine orange (L20D) was used up through the '71 model, and then they switched to "Brilliant Orange" (L20B). It's a subtle difference, but side by side, Clementine is just a little redder and a darker tint.
@@nbvolks I commend you for doing justice to this car. I do the same with my restorations, my ‘67 pearl white westfalia and almost done with my mom’s ‘73 412 wagon in maya gold metallic. Yep, you are correct on your paint. I was guessing when I posted…but the colors are close.
There is a great book called "Thinking Small" By Andrea Hiott. It's a history of The Beetle from the start until "The New Beetle" of The late 90's that saved VW America. The book gives a lot of context about The Beetle's origins and its rise.
I own a '73 Super Beetle, my grandfather gave it to me, and I absolutely love it. I really enjoyed you driving it and making a video of it, you nailed it when it comes to describing the Super Beetle. Nowadays I can't drive it anymore since there are Emissions Restrictions in Barcelona, for now I'm only able to drive it on the weekends, (and from 8pm to 7am everyday) but in 3 years, I won't be able to drive it at all, which makes me sad.
Then start voting in people who think like you. Enjoy your power grid failures when they are overloaded trying to charge up all the idiotic electric cars.
Why is that? That sounds like a stupid law. Where I am I can drive any car without issues. Cops don't care about registration as long as they know it's yours
A friend of mine had one of these, it felt modern and more spacious with the bubble windshield. It had rock hard Konis, we crossed railways and saw something flew off from the front of the car. Looked like one of the headlamp chrome ring but it was lost anyway. When we arrived we checked the car, and the headlamp was off the bowl, just holding from the wires ready to fall on the road 😂👍. I'll always remember that one
Got my first car last year for my 16th birthday and it's everything I could have ever wanted. An adorable, white, '92 Volkswagen Beetle from Puebla, Mexico with most of its original parts. It's been heavily modified as it has a new stereo system and a new steering wheel (kinda funny to look at cuz it's a Mercedes steering wheel) but aside from that, it's all there. I absolutely love to drive it and you are 100% correct when you say that it's 1. Inspiring to drive and oozes confidence and 2. Where most people learn to drive manual. I love my Beetle and it will definitely be my firstborn's first car!
I used to drive my parents 1953 vw beetle when i was a college, ( High school for you Americans) Loved that car so much❤ Im 62 now and still think of the times driving it.
I’ve always had a passion for cars that exist for the sole purpose of getting somewhere else. This, the Fiat 500, the 2CV etc. Very little else besides a motor and some seats.
I had a dark blue 1966 1300 beetle which was 6 volt. I loved it. The fuel gauge didn't work, so I had to use a stick to dip the tank which was under the hood at the front. In all the cold winters it never failed to start. I loved the skeletonized ignition key.
I had a 1969 Beetle (in 1984). I drove it from Boston to Denver, 2000 miles. A couple issues; blew a tire in Iowa, fuel pump broke in Nebraska, rusted floopans, heat couldn't be shut off (hot in the Midwest!), running board fell off in Denver but I fixed everything and the car made it!!
Beautiful car! Thank for ensuring that the revs of the engine and the whine of the transmission could be heard clearly. t takes me back to my high school years, driving a 1979 triple white cabriolet. That is the one to have, if you can afford about $100K nowadays! The sound was music to my ears. Thank you so much!!!
Nice to see and hear from him again after many decades. It's exactly my first car, after I just got my driver's license at the age of 18 in Germany. And that was in 1983 and my Beetle was built in 1973 and I bought it for only 800,- DM German Marks, which was about 2.000 $ in that decade. This classic car evokes very good moods and memories in me. It was a fantastic time. Thanks Bro. 👍🐬😃✅🥇💯raw and simple!
My mother had one in off white. I remembered it when I was 4 years old climbing all the way back of the car. When I was 10 years old a neighbor had one in blue. I remembered riding in the back seat of the car. I liked the newer Beetles from the late 90’s to 2019.
I drove a 1972 Super Beetle from Binghamton to Syracuse 44 years ago when attending orientation at Syracuse University, and it drove like a champ both in the city and on I-81!!! Truly a fine car!!!
The first car in my family that I remember was a 1200 "normal" Beetle. As a little child and sitting on the baby seat, due to the curve of the roof I could easily see the world from the rear window. I mostly saw trees and large and high advertising signs. I perfectly remember that I could recognize the last turn before arriving home from a certain advertising sign (couldn't read it but could obviously recognise it). I was three years old, I went to the new house when I was 3 years and 3 months, so all those recollections are before that. I could also see outside from the sides but not well, basically I could see tall buildings and I could see well on steep downhills (the new house is on a steep downhill, I write from there) the road in front of the car, but not really well on the sides. I remember awful trips on mountain roads on the rear baby seat of the Beetle, made you feel you wanted to throw off. Thinking about it now, magic car, I dreamt about being grown up and able to drive a Maggiolino (the "Beetle" in Italian). A few years later, after an inconsequential road accident at low speed (I "flew" on the front seats near the gear lever) dad bought a second-hand Ford Taunus 15m TS 2-doors, which could more easily accommodate three adults (we had a "nanny") and three children. Beetles remained decently successful in Italy considering they were foreign cars, but the "super Beetle" was known to be very thirsty, which spelled its end during the oil crisis in 1974. As a side note, my father told me much later that it was out of question that my Granddad's FIAT 1100 was a better car than his 1200 Beetle. The Beetle was seen as a relatively cheap reliable car, but the 1100 was much sportier and much more fun to drive, and much better when you had to overcome one of those slow trucks.
Pretty sure Adolf’s beetle was called a KDF Wagen. Same argument was heard against Japanese vehicles was heard loud and often when they went on sale in the US. Thanks for the video. Cheers.
I have an identical Super Beetle the same colour that I purchased in 1982 and I’m still driving it today. I have upgraded the brakes suspension and added dual carburettors, electronic ignition plus some other performance tweaks as passive safety features to enable me to keep up with other traffic. I have retained the standard look other than the Empi alloy wheels. I just love my Suoer Beetle and the reactions I get from onlookers, it makes me feel 18 again every time I drive it.
In my early driver years, I had a ’73 Super Beetle and a ’70 VW Bus, but I learned to drive a stick in a late 70’s Toyota Corolla. Then perfected my manual driving in the VW Bus. :)
I have a VW Beetle from México which my dad drove from Pue, MX to IN, US and it's still here in our house it's been chilling in our garage an sinc we started building a bathroom in our garage the VW beetle has been taking in more sun
I bought a slightly used 74 Super Beetle when I got out of the Army in early 1977. It was so clean and ran great and believe it or not it never leaked a drop of oil. The only VW I've owned that I can say that about. Wonderful memories from that car and those years. I sold it about 4 years later and still want to kick my own butt for doing it!
Brings back lots of memories. I had a '74 Superbeetle exactly like that back in the early 2000's except mine was Marina Blue (light blue). Mine wasn't nearly in as good condition. Fun little car, I miss it sometimes. I'm surprised they left the EGR valve on. That was the last year before VW put in fuel injection and catalytic converters, you can tell 1975 and later at a distance by the single tailpipe.
Tedward, I subscribed because I respect you for saying "Oh YES, I want more GT2 RS in my life" AND yet you appreciate the very real charms of '74 Beetle.
we spend a decade in this car as 3 friend, travelled long long distances visited different cities. used it on daily basis. had no issue with the car, never broke. my firend was the first owner of this car. his father i mean, 1974 his father bought brand new, son used it untill UNI finished, now my friends sister has it car keeps going with no issue, FYI; the car is used in a very hot climate, air cooled engine had no issue what so ever. legend car!
A 1973 Super Beetle was the first car I bought. I don't how many trips I made between Fort Meade and my home in Kentucky and back, but I bet it was close to 100. Once I put on radial tires it really could handle and brake better. The cool thing about the car was that I could take out the rear seat bottom and I made a wooded bike rack that could hold two bicycles. I had to let the car go at about 110,000 miles as the engine was on its last legs. It would have cost more to replace or rebuild the engine. Those air-cooled engines could not last forever due high engine heat. My mechanic said it was better to sell it and get something new, unfortunately I bought a 1978 Civic. I should have kept the Beetle, as I had more trouble with the Honda than the VW. I wish I had kept the VW.
I purchased pretty much the same car, same colour in 1971. In 1972 VW issued the limited edition Weltmeister Beetle in silver blue metallic with sculptured wheels, so I part-exchanged the orange Beetle and bought a Weltmeister. Fabulous car. Later, I had it souped up by Oettinger.
I love the VW beetle. My grandfather has been working on them for 50+ years. My earliest clear memories are beetles! My first car (still is) was a 67’ Beetle that I bought for 1500 bucks from an old lady in upstate NY. After a total engine rebuild or two. And a lot of time, she runs like nothing on the road! She is no show piece, but I love her! I have a video on my channel if you want to see it drive around my area!
Every previous owner talks about the car even decades later and enthusiastically talks about it. I'll probably never rave about my first car 30 years from now, the Peugeot 106, which didn't even officially exist in America. 🙈😂 My mother's first car was also a VW Beetle here in Germany and she still talks about the car. She drove it from 1973-1981 and only gave it up when there were more holes than sheet metal left, thanks to rust. One quirk of the car was that the heating didn't work reliably in the winter, but did in the summer and how much she simply loved the car in contrast to the Ford Escort that my father drove at the time. My uncle had a very serious accident at work in the depths of winter and was brought to a specialized hospital 160 miles away and he stayed there for months, fighting to survive (btw he survived paraplegic). My mother was the oldest of the siblings and was the only one with a driver's license in her family and every Friday she took off work at noon and drove to Hamburg with her mother and two sisters and a trunk full of luggage, the car had never let her down despite temperatures below -5F and high snowpacks.
This brings back vivid memories. My first car was a 1974 Super Beetle, factory red color. It was bought new by my father, and I learned to drive in it when I got my license in 1977. In 1979 I bought it to drive to college. It was still like new inside and out, looking as good as this one in the video. Sold it in the early 1980s and I always missed it, so I bought another red '74 Super Beetle in the late 1980s and drove the hell out of it commuting to work for the next 5 or 6 years. I sold it when my son was born and got a bigger car. I still have dreams where I find my first one again.
Had a 72 Super Beetle with a crank-open sunroof and wish still I had it today. We bought it in the US for overseas delivery and picked it up at the huge Wolfsburg factory. Drove it around Europe for five weeks and shipped it back to the US. I remember it ended up costing us $2700. Such a fun car with that distinctive VW sound. Aside from that bulging 'trunk' one detail about the Super Beetle you did not mention was the windshield curved out from the passenger compartment as opposed to being flat, giving the illusion of a bigger interior. The car was great in snow but a major problem with air-cooled Beetles was poor heat/defrost. During New England winters, you had to remember to keep the heat vent cables open when you shut it down at night or they would freeze shut overnight and no heat or defrost until they thawed. More people would break those cables trying to pull them open when they froze up. This video brought back such sweet memories. Thank you.
Tedward, i really hoped that you'd get a nice example of one of these for a video when the time came, and feel like it was a good representation of what they are. It's good to see someone talking about how it feels, not just how it looks.
Thank you for those memories. I owned a "Panorama Big Boxer" 1303 LS as my 2nd car in my life. Colour was "Saharabeige". I drove it one year between northern rhineland and bavaria without any problems. Only in autumn you had to take care, when there were wet leafs on the road.
Love my Beetles.....My first car was a red ‘65 Convertible, then a white ‘67 (that was a bomb!), then my first new car was a 1975 Le Grande Bug in metallic Blue. They stopped making or importing regular production Superbeetles after 1974, so this beautifully restored orange Bug was the last year for the SuperBeetle. The Le Grande Bug was a special edition and came with fuel injection, rack and pinion steering, rosewood dash, sunroof, corduroy upholstery, and a Blauplunkt am/fm stereo 8-track player. Deeeee-luxe! Drove it from Vancouver down to Mexico, then all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Not one problem, it was great on the highway, would cruise all day at 81mph. The owner’s manual even said, top AND cruising speed - 81mph! I had a bunch of VW Bugs and others after that, a 64, an orange ‘74 just like this one, but with the automatic stickshift. Would love to get my hands on an original in good shape or a restored bug like this one. Thanks ! Great video.
I still drive my 73 beetle on a regular base , I got it like 12 years almost 🙂 one of the best cars I have since my driving license. But my beetle looks classic inside with the metal dash , same red color but the most fun is that is quite fast for how it looks, it has a 1600 dual carb new engine and upgraded suspension + brake discs. The sound is so satisfying to hear the carbs rumble when I put the foot down 😎. I own a golf mk2 too (also a tuned engine) and a stock passat b5 station 20vt , love each of these cars. Got to say that the beetle is pretty damn reliable for such a old car 🤘
2:45 do you see the symbol on the steering wheel? This is the coat of arms of Wolfsburg in germany, this is were the 1st and biggest VW plant existed. It's such a cool little detail!
My dad had a 1969 beetle that was modified to be a baja racer. it mainly had taller tires, better suspension and crash bars for the engine and front end. It was a super fun car to drive on backroads and logging roads. I want one because of that car
I had a 68'. Still miss it. All happiness until the old hoses left me stranded with no gas🤣. Some duct tape, maybe some wire, oil and imagination was all you needed to make it anywhere you wanted, and all the buddies you make with a "Vocho"❤
I started college driving a ‘72 MGB. After the first winter I bought a ‘71 Super Beetle. These were not new by a long shot but we’re still all over the place and you could pick them up cheap. While I kept the MG for a long the, I ended up having Four other Beetles, including one that I hot rodded. That was one Fast car. Today, after a succession of GTI’s, I have an Alltrack SEL - a Long drive from a beetle! They still make me look
Thanks for this. I had a 73 super beetle when I was 16 and I beat that car to 💩 and couldn’t kill it. Other than freezing to death in winter I couldn’t get that little thing stuck. It was like a tank. I ran it out of oil at least 10 times. Dump a couple quarts of the old used looking dollar general oil in it and fired right back up. Truly a car I regret ever getting rid of
I learned to drive in one of those cars! They are extremely reliable in terms of spares, you can trust going anywhere with these little giant and they are very customizables, well thanks for this video footage!
My first brand new car ..74 Super Beetle.. .. I put Swedish radials on it, Kadron Header, Hurst Click Shifter., Bosch 009 Ignition, Western Aluminum wheels, lightened flywheel, Hrads fly cut .028, Holley 2 Barrel, Craig Power Play 8 track w/4 Bose 901 speakers… couldn’t get any better times for me..
A 74 regular beetle in Orange with black trip was my first car in 1985. Fond memories so long as I don't think of long distance or very wet trips, but it was a fun car to drive
My biological father had several VWs when I was small. Squarebacks and Beetles. My father told me that back in the 60's, The Beetle was pretty much it for cheap, reliable transportation. Eventually, my father sold his Beetle at a Lemon Lot near his job as federal employee and got a Nissan Sentra. Nice car, but no soul and otherwise forgettable. The sputter of the engine and all of the rattles give character to a Beetles. Mechanically, they could go for almost forever with regular maintenance. The problem is that many Beetles rusted out because they were made before rustproofing was widespread in cars. I still miss my father's Bug.
I learned to drive stick in 1966 my mom's Renault Dauphine right before dad traded it for a new 1966 VW 1300 sedan. Mom gave me the VW in 1969 and I installed a Cyclone extractor exhaust system and drove it from our home in New Jersey to Los Angeles. I made the trip in a little over 60 hours never exceeding 65mph and without much stopping. They were almost unstoppable in the snow, and you had better crack a window open or the door wouldn't shut. 1300cc and 50hp. Mine was great on the long distance highway, just don't run over 65.
I rode to high school around 1995 with a neighbor who had a Beetle. It was almost the same vintage, orange-ish paint, and nowhere near as good condition. Brings back some fun memories. So exciting to see what it would have been like in restored condition.
