A Question

Unless you are ready and willing to do most work yourself... fuhget it.

That's not meant to sound rude. But in most parts of the US, you won't find *anyone* who knows anything about them and when they do are able to charge bigga bucks.

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Speedy Jim

I wouldn't say bugs are low maintenance, it more that the people who own them know how to do basic maintenance themselves so they aren't paying someone else to do it every few months. If maintained, they are super reliable. My bug is past 300K miles and only once in the last 23 years have I been stranded (because I screwed up the engine too, not a reliability problem really.)

Get yourself the Muir manual (not technically accurate but a good source of inspiration) and the Bentley manual first and see if doing stuff like changing the oil every 3000 miles and doing a valve job is within your abilities, then go find a well-maintained bug to buy.

Hey Al

I'd hate to steer you away from bugs but I'd hate for you to make a wrong choice more, curse us out and hate bugs for the rest of your life:

Bugs will require a fair amount of maintenance. Unless you already know how to work on bugs, you don't want to learn by working on one you rely on to get to from A to B (that's when you'll start cursing us out if we told you to get a bug).

If you want a reliable car, fairly low maintenance that will most likely get you decent mileage and will last for a while, I'd get a Subaru. I've had several and they are very good basic transportation, not hard to maintain and fairly easily worked on. I got my daughter an older Impreza at during the first year of college and she's now going for her masters' (so it has lasted a bit). If you live in an area where you might get a decent amount of snow, the four wheel drive aspect is your friend.

Join the dark side, get a third car and let that be a bug :) Remco

Or get an 80's Mercedes, very reliable if you find one from a good home which has not been eaten by the steel worms..

J.

Yeah, that works too.. While were dreaming, why not a nice gull wing? :)

Mmm, my regular car is a -82 W123 230E... The last of the good ones..

J.

Nice wheels! Agreed on the newer body styles - they all look like German Hondas now..

Hey Al, Welcome to the wonderful world of Air Cooled VWs. John Henry has some MUST reading that you should check out prior to making a decision about VWs.

Be Cool.....AIRCOOLED !!

"Wild" Bill Tucker

President Rare Air VW Club Pensacola, Florida

'78 VW Bus ( "Old Rusty" )

'76 Bug "The Grape"

'69 Squareback , Arizona car, Automatic

Rare Air VW Club Website:

The west coast still has a lot of acvw-only shops, and the handful I've personally used were resonable with pricing. On an annual basis, cost a hell of a lot less to pay them to maintain my bug than I'm paying now for my girlfriend's 97 cavalier.

South San Francisco bay and Portland, OR were both great places to own one. Almost too good because I didn't take the time to learn nearly as much as I should have when I had ready access to hands-on help.

So...

Where would you guys like me to move and open an AC only VW shop?

:D

Jan

Seth Graham wrote:

I live in 1A.

Raleigh, NC. I have a rail that needs some professional help. (Not "less-than-professional," but "professional.") You move here and open up an AC VW shop and I'd proudly be your first customer. :-)

I dont have a problem with the latter body styles so much (2000 something).Just the quality, unless we are looking at 500 - 600 series, which are waaaaay out of my league :o)

J.

When it comes to Mercedes, I just know what body style I like. A friend of mine had an older 450, which is just a beautiful car - bad in snow or rain, but beautiful. Always have been partial to Gull Wings since I saw one when I was a kid. Never owned one (am partial to Saabs myself) but do remember wondering what the heck happened to their style - or lack of - around later 80s; they all just started to look alike. Mercedes had such a nice difinitive style in the day. (Hate the looks of the new saabs too, though, so it is probably just me. :)

Anywhere in Fairfield county, Connecticut.

LOL

I'll get right on it :D

Jan

Hmm... climate-wise it sounds better than IL. Hmm.

jan

Unless you like your climate in Finland, forget what I mentioned about opening a shop up in CT (it is way not as nice weather as where Shag lives)

...............I suspect that Jan is yearning for a warm & dry climate and a lot of ACVWs to play with. Arizona/Southern California would satisfy his needs and then we would all have a place to stay while on winter vacation.