Jalopnik: 1969 volkswagen beetle

When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue

Murilee Martin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:30:00 EDT

These days, Volkswagen's marketers would sooner dump ground glass down their lederhosen than pitch their products as no-frills utilitarian transportation, but their predecessors had different cars to work with.

Copyranter has found this 1969 VW print ad comparing the Volks American product line (which would have been the Beetle, Karmann Ghia, Transporter, Fastback, and Squareback) to the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. Tuesday is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, so you can celebrate by buying a Moonlander Captiva, or gnash your teeth over the fact that the supah-cool Lunar Rover wasn't used until later Apollo missions.
[Copyranter]

1969 Volkswagen Beetle

Murilee Martin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EDT

The old air-cooled Beetles have rusted to nothingness in much of the world, but they're still quite common in Alameda. So common, in fact, that I tend to think of them as normal "background cars" and have to remind myself to shoot one for this series when too many Beetle-free weeks go by. Since it's been almost three months since the last Beetle down on the Alameda street, we're due.

Like so many daily-driven beater Beetles, this one got hit and had some replacement body parts installed... then never painted. Why bother when it will just get hit again? That's thinking long-term.

You used to see a lot more Beetles with spacers on the engine lid, to improve cooling. There's no factory temperature gauge or idiot light in these cars, so generally your first warning that terrible overheating is taking place involves frying a valve or piston in the #3 cylinder (the one with airflow blocked by the oil cooler). Remember those big RVEECO external oil coolers?

With 53 rampaging horsepower, the '69 was one of the more powerful Type 1s. You could buy a new '69 Beetle for $1,799. No automobile made in Detroit (or Kenosha) could even come close to that price; a 1969 AMC Rambler listed at $1,998, and the '69 Ford Maverick sold for three bucks less. A new '69 Datsun 510 was a little closer, at $1,896. The King of Cheap in 1969, however, was the Fiat 850 sedan, with a $1,466 price tag. Hey, it's Friday- let's have a DOTS Of The Week poll! Vote for the street-parked Alameda vehicle you liked the best; I'm predicting a Monte Carlo-M6 battle here, but perhaps the Mitsubishi van will get enough weirdness points to take the win.

DOTS 1-200 • DOTS 201-250

1969 Volkswagen Beetle, Before And After Mishap

Murilee Martin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EDT

Sometimes months can go by between my photographing of a DOTS car and posting those photographs. Today's car is a good example; I shot the original photos last August, but the island is overflowing with air-cooled Beetles and I have a glut of photos of such cars (yes, Beetle fans, I know I should be posting more of them... and I will, promise). But this particular exposed-engine Beetle, which I'm arbitrarily calling a '69 (though it could be from any year during the 68-72 span), got in some sort of messy collision in the meantime and then moved across town. At first, I thought I was looking at a different car, but checking plate numbers told the whole story.

So what we have here is your standard mildly hot-rodded late-60s/early-70s Beetle, with exposed engine but retaining the factory wheels and hubcaps.

This could easily be the original engine, or the 15th, and the displacement could be anything from 1200cc all the way up to a stroked "How much money you got?" mill. My guess is that it's a 1500 or 1600 with a few mild performance upgrades.

Ouch! Looks like a mishap involving the right front corner, maybe a Bug-versus-tree or Bug-versus-parked-car episode. But hey, it's still driving!

Jalopnik: 1969 volkswagen beetle

When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue

1969 Volkswagen Beetle

DOTS 1-200 • DOTS 201-250

1969 Volkswagen Beetle, Before And After Mishap

First 200 DOTS