Fiat 500: If This is Chrysler's Future, There is None

I drove many highway miles in VW Beetles during the '58 to '63 period. My highway speeds were 65 mph if I could get it to that speed. with the wind, no problem, against he wind a problem, long hills a big problem.

The Beetle was the only small car at that time in Canada which could cruise at 60+ mph without experiencing early engine failure. This is why they became so popular, as well their excellent traction in snow. They had a reputation for being tough and pushed off the roads the British cars of that time, such as Austin, which was very fragile.

They did have their problems though, poor brakes, poor heater and defroster, short muffler life, and sensitivity to cross winds and under steer on slippery roads. For their era they gave excellent fuel mileage, about the same as I now get with my '95 Concorde and '04 300M.

Didn't they also require valve adjustments every 3000 miles or so or they would eat the valves? New valve tubes were required each time? I never owned one, but seems I always heard that about them.

semi-trucks, etc. I would feel very

In the US they way people drive, yes. I made a European "tour" back in the 70's driving a VW Microbus that topped out at 65 km/hr (no I don't mean mph) and had no problems on the German Autobahns because people followed lane discipline. I stayed in the right lane and people drove past us in the left lane, often looking at us funny.

I didn't experience that valve problem, nor did I hear of it. I adjusted the valves about every 20k miles. Basically the engine was very solid and reliable, but some years changes introduced minor problems. My '56 VW engine was 100% reliable, but was very prone to carburetor icing during warm up on cold humid days. Later a heater was added. My '61 had an distributor problem, burning the points. A friend's had cam problems during guarantee, about '59.

From some quick Googling:

Yes, the valves had to be adjusted regularily or the engine started missing and misbehaving in general.

the upside was that I could go out on a Saturday morning and adjust the valves in less than 10 minutes. The easiest valve adjustment I ever saw.

Some people did point out some real disadvantages. They were way underpowered and could not keep up with highway traffic. At the slightes hill, my '61 microvan would drop down to 40 miles per hour. Pretty scary with a big semi tailgating behind.

They were also very light and were all over the road when the wind was blowing.

Overall, I had mixed feelings. I liked it when I bought it and was glad when I traded it in for a full size Dodge van that had no trouble keeping up with traffic.

Only the first URL mentioned fear of engine failure on VW valve adjustment. Perhaps the reference was to later higher powered VW engines than mine. I had a '56 and '61, only about 35 & 40 HP, also very low revving. I didn't drive them very hard, just chugged along.

The main problem I heard around 1960 was people driving the VW van (BTW the first mini van!) too hard and burning up the engine. Being air cooled the engine was sensitive to hot temperatures and being driven too hard. Most times it was cool where I lived and the VW generally wasn't bought by those wanting to race. They were driven moderately, so I expect that was why valve adjustment wasn't a big problem where i lived.

I notice one chap said a valve adjustment was easy to do, only 10 minutes. I say BS to that, particularly if you didn't have a hoist. You had to lay on your side, remove the valve cover, position the engine cam, then adjust the valves. The valve cover needed to be properly replaced with a good gasket, or it easily leaked. Repeat on the other side!