all i want - is - everything! no - not really. but i would like to see a world everyone could be happy in - and to live in it. i would like to see a lot more trains and buses, going more places more often, and an end to the reasons we don't. and i would like to see them propelled by means more considerate of the environment. and smaller ones so smaller places could have them. what i remember of the old underpowered air cooled voxies, wasn't breakdowns but tuneups. a semi-annual or even quarterly ritual. engines that could be pulled and swapped out with a floor jack, and rebuilt on the kitchen table. knew several people to do just that back in the day. my dad had a voxie bug. always paid someone else to do the tuneups though. other people i've met in passing along the way, were more independently inclined when it came to internal combustion mechanics.
that would take more time and more ambition, but you would see more. several people have done that, and written books about it. and of course once upon a time, that's all there was. it was putting wheels on rails that created civilization, or something that came almost close to it, and putting inflateble tyres on them, and pavement under them, which has very nearly destroyed it.
First, if you don't know anything about VW's then you need to read up. Mine looked good from a distance but it was a rusty bitch and the transaxle never ran right. I had start off in second and hold it there until I got up to speed. It was just a 15 dollar part but it required rebuilding the whole trans and I never had the extra money in three years to get it fixed. Second, they always cost way more than you want to pay because they're getting rarer all the time but once you have one, you have friends for life. Car clubs, hippies, strangers on the street will flock to you. Three, if you aren't mechanical about autos in general then you might just want to stick with a new minivan. VW busses are temperamental children. No two are alike and no two will need the same kind of attention. Good air-cooled handlers aren't just standing on ever corner waiting to fix your ride and they're really not gonna do it for free. Lastly, they're like Harleys. They always need work. I just sold mine six months ago and I miss it so much. I used to sleep in it in the driveway. It smelled comfy, like home. I drove it for three years without ever tagging it, I almost lost it in a break up and I spent more time finding someone right to buy it from me than I did looking it over when I bought it myself. I'm getting another one ASAP. I love them not just for the nostalgia but because they are the people's car and they like home away from home unless you're living in it.
