The American Spectator

Richard Baker| 12.10.09 @ 7:34AM

In America, we have an intrusive government, which needs to be thrown away, and which doesn't give a hoot about the cost of their "mandates" and so basic simple is hard to do here. I suggest that we put all the government bureaucrats, of all stripes, on a large ship, take it out to sea, and sink the ship. Feeding the fish would be the ecologically responsible thing to do.

Curtis| 12.10.09 @ 7:36AM

You hit the nail on the head, but left us short on the meat of the matter. Cheap, reliable, fuel efficient, and maintainable cars are currently an impossible dream due to the opposed interferences' of two different government entities with agendas. The NHTSA and the EPA.
(National Highway Transportation and Safety admin, and Environmental protection agency.)

The EPA is more concerned with CO2 than actual mileage, and the NHTSA keeps throwing wrenches into the mix by demanding more and heavier safety features.

After the EPA is done demanding reduced emission and double catalytic converters, and the NHTSA insists on 8 airbags, a tire pressure monitor, and steel beams in all the doors, we all wind up in over sized and underpowered landbarges that are impossible to fix.

Meanwhile, the green liberals who crave for a car like the VW have their heads too far up their butt to realize its their own safety and environazi government that's keeping them from ever seeing anything like a VW beetle ever again. The nuts driving hybrids are still convinced that the batteries are made in environmentally friendly factories that are manned by dancing unicorns and satyrs.

All I want is a small diesel pickup, similiar in size to the Ford Ranger or Chevy Colorado. But Mahindra is taking forever to import the Appalachian, and the government is refusing to budge on the "chicken tax" on imported trucks because they're so heavily invested in GM.

As far as serviceability goes, that is the one area that is largely the fault of the manufacturers. They're completely addicted to the idea of making cars that the customers can't service, let alone fix. I own a 2008 VW Rabbit, and I can say that Volkswagen has no interest in making routine maintenance (Such as oil change or airfilter swap) easy or even possible for the average owner. In my honest opinion, their goal is to someday get to a place where they can stick a warranty sticker on the hood seam, and sue you if you break it.

Melvin| 12.10.09 @ 7:42AM

Grrr, Government, government, damned government.
My wife and I were discussing that the other evening, why can't we be supplied with a basic, inexpensive vehicle that doesn't cost gazillions of
dollars.
As is for the most of us, to go back and forth to work and run a few errands in the city, we don't need a vehicle that massages our butt in the morning, purrrs, go right,go left, and comes with optional Xboxs in the headrest to keep the little demons occupied.
I just want a basic car, no radio, no A/C, no electric nothing and I can repair on site with a nose hair trimmer, and shoe laces. God! is this so much to ask for?
I don't need a vehicle that costs more than my house, for Christ sakes I want to drive it to work not live in it.

Le Cracquere| 12.10.09 @ 2:14PM

I'm with you, Melvin. It does make me wonder, though, why many conservatives appear to disapprove of bicyclists, whose vehicles usually meet exactly the criteria you mention!

Doorgunner| 12.10.09 @ 2:37PM

Love my Cannondale... and my BMW R1100s. And I voted for Reagan twice. We don't disapprove of "bicyclists"; we scorn smug Lefties who think riding a bicycle is evidence of superior ethicality.

Le Cracquere| 12.10.09 @ 2:58PM

And rightly so, Doorgunner! But though I've no wish to hijack the subject, sometimes I think our justified dislike of lefty sanctimoniousness & all its works results in friendly fire against targets whose only sin is being liked by people we don't.

Of course, irony is equal-opportunity: the left's environmental & regulatory reflexes long ago undercut the old "smokestack liberalism" that was once their base, and now we find these preoccupations have annihilated what was once the hippie ride par excellence.

ModjCyn| 12.10.09 @ 4:04PM

1952 Dodge M37 Powerwagon. It meets all the criteria you mentioned; if you don't mind a top speed of 58mph. You can probably guess it's not great on gas, but it's as close to the perfect car as you can get.

Cleophus| 12.10.09 @ 11:09PM

The vehicle you want is as close as your nearest junkyard Curtis! They call 'em clunkers now, and have some insane need to chop them up and sell the bits to China. I drive a 1947 Willys pickup that has a cast iron four cylinder engine and four wheel drive. It took some work to fix it up, but now I have a vehicle that almost never breaks down, and if it does it can usually be fixed with a pair of pliers and some bailing wire! It's not fast, it doesn't have a radio or air conditioning, but it's got a good heater, will haul 1000 pounds, keeps the rain off of me and is harder to tear up than a crow bar! Find you and old one and fix it up.

JimP| 12.10.09 @ 8:03AM

A good article and sooo true. It brought back memories of the 60's and the Beetle we had. Even in the early 1970's it was easy to buy a small car that got 40mpg. Remember Opals? We had one that was a great little car, got 40mpg, low maintenance, looked great, comfortable and fun to drive and it was CHEAP to buy and maintain. Yes, DC has effed over everyone with their control freakdom and now I laugh when I read about how they want us to have cars that get 40mpg or better. Take off all the mandated crash bumpers, air bags, side impact I beams etc and modern fuel injected engines will have us zipping about getting 50+ miles per gallon in no time. A pox on DC. May they all burn in he!! forever.

JAH666| 12.10.09 @ 9:54AM

I'll help you light the fire on the DC bureaucrats, man. Even as late as the '80s and '90s, car makers were still able to build sound (but small) high mileage cars that were fairly easy to service and maintain. In 1980, I bought a Datsun 210 hatchback that I drove until the early '90s and put close to 200k miles on. Sold it to a stupid kid, who killed it in less than six months. In the '90s I bought a Geo Metro that got OVER 50 mpg. That car would get over 40 mpg in summer with the AC running! Still have that car and people knock on my door and offer to buy it from me!
All the examples that you and I cite, bro, make it easy to see that car makers are innovative and smart - it's the damned government busy-body do-gooders that ruin cars and everything else in this world.

Wankel| 12.10.09 @ 8:10AM

Wish they'd bring back the Karmann Ghia also. Man, those were the days...

Brubaker| 12.10.09 @ 8:21AM

I'm old enough to have fond 1960s memories of the original Beatles. They were quirky and a bit out of place on American roads, and we loved them for it. An their spartan design wasn't all that much different from the typical American car of the time.

Government mandates have indeed forced manufacturers to include all manner of safety and emission control devices, but changing consumer tastes have forced even greater change.

While some will argue that they want "just plain transportation," very few actually mean it. When they begin to look at cars to purchase, suddenly the thought of a scorching July without air conditioning isn't so attractive. A five speed manual transmission may be sporty and a touch macho, but it's crap in the bumper-to-bumper traffic that exists in every major city.

Even cost comparisons with the "good old days" are generally misleading. $2,000 in 1960 dollars is roughly equivalent to $15,000 today. It's still possible to buy a new car for $15K, but very few actually do.

The original Beatle was a great car for its time, but that time is past. By any rational standard, today's cars are better -- and tomorrow's will be better yet.

Sowell Disciple| 12.10.09 @ 11:14AM

I'm a big Beatles fan, too. But what do they have to do with cars?

Marine| 12.10.09 @ 3:58PM

As we knew them, they're just about all gone...

Ryan| 12.10.09 @ 8:48AM

The article completely missed another piece of Beetle nostalgia.

That thing could FLOAT.

It was a marvel of simple engineering, seemingly infinitely customizable (you could stick a Porsche motor in the back of one, and they made good dune buggies).

Plus, you could change the motor out in half an hour.

McGehee| 12.10.09 @ 9:23AM

It's too bad Ted Kennedy wasn't driving one at Chappaquiddick.

Michael Gewin| 12.10.09 @ 10:09AM

I had a 1970 Superbeetle. Kept it for 15 years and put probably 200,000 miles (not for sure since the odometer broke and was never repaired). Man, was that a great car. Wish I hadn't gotten rid of it.

scythe| 12.10.09 @ 10:12AM

I bought the 1977 hardtop - the last year they were imported into the USA. They continued to import the rag top Old Beetle for some years later but that stopped. One of the biggest mistakes of my life was to sell that car. Only 42,000 miles after 7 years of driving and it was in perfect shape. What was I thinking! An emergency arose in 2008. I needed a car to travel back and forth to work (60 miles per day) and the old car broke down. In a panic (after being towed on the GS Parkway and missing a day of work) I walked into a VW showroom and bought a used New Beetle Convertible. The car was two years old and cost 22,000 to buy. I hesitated but since this would be my third Beetle I was overcome with nostalgia and took the plunge. A NEW model would have been close to....get this... THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. In 1977 I paid 4, 500 for a better car. The only thing I can say about the car is that it does get good gas mileage but a "people's car" it most definitely IS NOT. The tune ups are expensive, everything can and does go wrong and it was built in Mexico. It is absolutely LOUSY in the snow and you take your life in your hands driving it. The old Beetle with the engine in the back gave it the extra weight needed and was far better driving in bad weather. You never had to worry about radiators, coolants, etc. and its simplicity was a source of comfort unlike today's model. Government regulations really did destroy a good thing and now that we have found out "global warming" is a scientific Ponzi/Madoff scheme, perhaps someone some day will really bring back the Beetle. Until then I am driving a far more expensive and a bastardized version of the real thing and we all know what is said about a "real thing". As far as "cute" is concerned, part of its cuteness was its afforadability and the signals one sent when purchasing it. It became just another trendy over priced "European" import without the mass appeal and cost effectiveness. What a shame.

Don Harris| 12.10.09 @ 10:37AM

The greatest car I ever owned was a 1957 Beetle. Nothing that I have owned since has even come close to being comparable. I miss it dearly and constantly dream of finding an old one and restoring it. Even when the transmission lost reverse, the car was still drivable. I could still parallel park by getting out and pushing backwards. What a car!

Kelly Staples| 12.10.09 @ 11:18AM

In the early '70s Lennon spouted every radical chic cliche in the book. Until 1975 he was easily the worst Beatle. McCartney, on the other hand, continued to display his world-class talent and prodigious work ethic, making him the best Beatle.

Eric Damon| 12.10.09 @ 11:22AM

Never owned a Beetle, but I have a cousin that owns one and he loves it. It's good on gas and he likes to tinker with the engine because it's really easy to work on...but people not in the know think he's a whiz as a shade tree mechanic!

My first car was a 1983 Honda Accord hatchback that I bought for like $1200 at a yard-sale! I loved that car and when I finally had to shut her down after a wreck in the snow, she had about 250k miles on her...and the only problem she ever gave me was that her float valve would stick on really hot, humid summer days. That would flood her out, but it would only happen like once a day, so I would just start he in the morning, let it flood and regulate itself, and then I was good to go!

Big Leo| 12.10.09 @ 11:30AM

The VW Beatle was cranky, terrible in the cold, and rusted easily on the salty roads of the far north. We loved it anyway. Once, two of us changed engines in one in TEN MINUTES! We had everything laid out and just went like blazes. It worked fine.

Why can't we make a car that an ordinary mechanically inclined owner can repair and maintain? Very few of us make $75 an hour.

John - TMF| 12.10.09 @ 11:35AM

The family owned a total of 4 Beetles, 1959 - in Germany while my father was stationed there. A 1963 1/2, a 1968 Convertible, and the last of the flat windshield Beetles a tomato red 1974 (which also became my first car).

The 63 1/2 was an old Fort Knox post beater that my father purchased to get back and forth from work. During the test drive he turned the wheel to the right... and nothing happened for a good 5 or so degrees of arc. There was a missing tooth in the pinion gear for the steering. A quick trip to the junk yard, a steering gear box from a 1962 (a little long but it worked), and a few hours in the front yard we had it swiched out and no hitch in the git-a-long...

I was nearing the end of my junior year when my mother announced that she was selling the bug because we weren't using it much (at the time I had not learned to drive a stick shift). She paused and said "It's yours if you want to learn to drive it..."

After quick trip to the high school parking lot, and an hour of bumping and grinding... I drove the Bug home, and had WHEELS!!!!

There was nothing more exhilarating than being passed by a truck on I81 while going 60 mph in a Bug. Changing lanes is completely out of your control... you just wait until the car stops bobbing back and forth before re-settling in the right lane.

Great car. I miss it. I doubt anyone would feel the same about their "new bug".

:-)
The Mighty Fahvaag

rt| 12.10.09 @ 11:44AM

Wait until Congress requires manufacturers to install GPS devices, so they can institute their favorite tax. The mileage tax, coming to a car near you.

Dean from Ohio| 12.10.09 @ 9:41PM

Take a piece of chewing gum with a foil wrapper. Save the wrapper, chew the gum and then fasten the foil wrapper over the GPS antenna using the gum. No more GPS.

Bruce Conway| 12.10.09 @ 12:56PM

I owned several of the old beetles (64, 74, 78) which I loved and have now had several of the new beetles (00, 04, 05) and there is no comparison. The newer ones are safer, quieter, more reliable and get better mileage. The new ones have been extremely reliable, require no more or no more costly maintenance than any other modern car, and are real automobiles, while the old ones were like large toys.

Helen| 12.10.09 @ 12:58PM

I owned a "62 bug years ago, and a 70 Ghia which I sold last year (sob). Loved both cars. The Ghia had to go because at 75, I couldn't get out from underneath anymore after setting the valves. What a sweetheart she was - loved knowing she was a cousin of the Porsche. But she went to a young man who had been looking for a decent Ghia to restore. He drove up in an old Beetle that just hummed, and brought back nostalgia for my 62, rusting body and all. Great cars. Loved working on them.

Stammon| 12.10.09 @ 1:30PM

Let me try to kill a few myths about the VW Bug. The bug had an excellent heating system. One minute after start up you had lots and lots of hot air everywhere. But, you had to have good heat exchangers. They needed replacing every 4 years or so. The bug ran great in hot and cold weather, started wonderfully, had lots of power. But, you had to replace the points and plugs every 12,000 miles, oil every 2,000, a tune up (and valve adjustment!!!) twice a year. The bug was a great car in the snow. But you better Z-Bart it, and tip the guy $20 to do a good job. The bug is fairly safe in an accident, but get and wear the seat belts, when hit by a 60's or 70's American sedan the bug will "bounce" with you in it. And lastly, and most important, when your bug is old, you must pay attention to the battery under the back seat. When the rear seat gets old, and the insulating cover is not on the battery, and someone rides in the back; the car will bounce, the seat will compress on the battery, the battery will short on the seat springs, and the bug will burn up. It usually takes about 60 seconds to reduce a shorted battery bug to scrap metal. I have personally seen this about 5 times, and every old bug mechanic knows about it.
Still, I wish I had my old one.

Hank Archer| 12.10.09 @ 2:05PM

Back in the 70's I knew two different large families (one in Ohio & one in New Mexico) who each had a stable of six or seven VW's. They'd cannabilize them and keep two or three running at all times. A cheep and simple way to have transportation for Mom, Dad and the older kids. Both families had bugs, fastbacks, squarebacks and "station wagons" (vans).

One time I helped the faterher take parts out of a usable bug to get their van going for a camping trip. When he got home, he reversed the process and got the bug running for his trip to work.

Another time we were driving along and the generator stopped charging. It was at night and the lights started to dim. We stopped, stuck a couple of pieces of cardboard between the springs and the excessively worn brushes and got home. Try that on your new Caddy!

Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 12.10.09 @ 2:22PM

My first car was a red bug, I think it was a ‘69. One time I had to drive several hundred miles to Milwaukee. I took I-55 to Chicago and continued north along whatever that interstate is. I recall getting about 57 miles to the gallon. And it wasn’t even a hybrid! And let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Every winter I put snow tires on the back and was able to get around town in really deep stuff with no problems, even on the hills. I did carry an ice scraper for the inside of my windshield, which was a tad annoying. I finally replaced it with a white ‘71 Super Beetle because it had a fan which helped defrost the windshield.. One Sunday morning, I answered a knock on the door. On the porch was an obviously drunk neighbor who hiccuped, “ Did you used to own a white car?” “What do you mean ‘used to’,” I asked. He replied, “ I sort of parked on top of it.” I ran outside to see for myself just what he was taking about. Sure enough, his cadillac was teetering right there on top of my poor car. He had followed me and said, “I was wondering why it was so hard to park my car. I thought I was hitting the curb.” I can laugh now, but I wasn’t laughing then. I have been totally unimpressed with front wheel drive. I have always been a strong believer in placing the engine’s weight over the drive wheels, but too many times, my front wheeled cars have been stranded on slick winter roads my old Beetles would master. I saw no need to buy the new version bug since it was just another front wheeler.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Celebrate Galt Day.
Don’t Tread on Me!!

Patrick Korten| 12.10.09 @ 2:24PM

I had a '71 Super Beetle, and with the help of a copy of "Volkswagon repair for the compleat idiot" I did everything from change the oil to replacing the muffler and sparkplugs, and even rebuilt the carburetor (twice!). We had the engine rebuilt once, and it went for more than 240,000 miles.

These days, I still drive a Volkswagen - a Passat - but when I tried to change the damned headlight, I found that I could barely even do that!

Not an improvement for the better.

Everly Waverly| 12.10.09 @ 2:37PM

Daisies on the dashboard? The new "Beetle" was a car marketed to/at chicks. When you remove half the population from the market it will fail.

I drove a 70 V-dub for 11 years, sold it to my brother, he drove it for another 10. Then he and his daughter fixed it up and she drove it for another 5. What a testament, who knows the car may still be running...

KyMouse| 12.10.09 @ 3:16PM

Remember that scene in Woody Allen's movie "Sleeper," when, after being thawed out in the future, he finds a rusty old VW in a cave -- and it starts right up? The audience roared -- it was a nanosecond gag, but everybody got it.

1qtevery500m| 12.10.09 @ 3:42PM

Looking through/around that A-pillar in the new one had to turn a lot of prospective buyers toward a Passat

Radioman 777| 12.10.09 @ 6:40PM

I'm a Ford/Chevy/Mopar guy with the philosophy that you can't have too much horsepower, but... In the past I've hotrodded a couple of Beetle flat-fours for friends. The air-cooled engine is one of the reasons it worked great in the desert. Modern vehicles can still be worked on, but you have to do a great deal of reading to be successful. Not many people have the patience to read technical manuals on engine control systems and the like, and some things require specialized diagnostic setups (these can tell you exactly how many times your engine misfired and what cylinder was the culprit, for example). But, many common repairs are within the reach of the average car owner.

The new Beetle just didn't fit the already established character of the original; you couldn't mod it or make it into a dune bug or sand buggy, so what good was it?

bluecollarbytes| 12.10.09 @ 6:52PM

I spent many trips in first girlfriend's 63 Bug, long enough to one day hit my head against the inside of the windshield when she stopped suddenly from going about 5 mph. The windshield cracked like a spiderweb. On the other hand, I could always push a VW Bug fast enough by myself to jump in and pop the clutch to start it whenever the starter was shot.

Andrew B| 12.10.09 @ 7:10PM

My most memorable VW Bug moment came the summer I graduated from college. I had never really believed that the Beetle would float, but came to know differently.

I was driving a big 1980 Jeep Cherokee home from work when a rainstorm of biblical proportions hit. We must have gotten 5 inches of rain in an hour, and the streets of my hometown were largely submerged. It wasn't enough to inconvenience my big Jeep, but I remember seeing a VW struggling along in the right lane. I passed him, not realizing that my bow wave would lift him clear of the pavement.

The VW bobbed like a cork, tires spinning wildly, until it washed up on the sidewalk where, with no trouble at all, it continued driving until coming to the next corner, where the roadway was clear.

I was very impressed.

DaveinPhoenix| 12.10.09 @ 9:34PM

My first car was a beige '64 Beetle - nothing like it on Earth ! Freedom ! Except that the floorboards rusted out underneath the battery and I'd sometimes have to stop when I heard the battery dragging on the asphalt.

My favorite memory was giving a (not so liked) neighbor a ride to school on a rainy day and laughing like a madman when gushers of water soaked him - a rusted hole on the front passenger floorboard also....hehehehehe

Learned to drive in the huge parking lots at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts. In the snow. My father had me start at one side of the parking lot and get it all the way up through the 4 gears and back down again before the end of the parking lot. In the snow.

I still miss my father who passed away years ago, but I think I miss that '64 VW even more.........

Peterk| 12.10.09 @ 9:55PM

and don't forget that with the old beetle you could modify it into a dune buggy, drop kitcar body onto the chassis, drop a porsche engine into
in other words it was a tinkerers car, non-mechanical folks could learn how to fix it easily

Curtis| 12.10.09 @ 11:02PM

Take that exact same design, and add just a touch of modernity.

Modern materials for the interior and body panels, modern metallurgy for the unibody and engine, 100K spark-plugs on the engine, Modern lubricants in the oilpan....

You'd have a car that would last 50 years or 500k miles, which ever came first.

Otis Criblecoblis| 12.11.09 @ 3:02AM

A great article about a great car. One little quibble: Bugs had 15-inch wheels, not 13-inch.

I had a '71 family blue Super Beetle, and I loved how it handled (once I put on good Metzler radials and placed a 25-pound bag of Jonny Cat in the nose). Simple as the car was, it did have 4-wheel independent torsion bar suspension.

Of course, even with the dual-port 1600 engine, it was underpowered, so I learned to drive as smoothly as possible, how to conserve momentum, and how to shift at the optimum speeds--facilities that still stand me in good stead.

Bob| 12.11.09 @ 12:08PM

Regarding automobile safety standards think about this: you can purchase a motorcycle and drive it on the road but you can't purchase an automobile unless it meets safety standards that a motorcycle could never meet...there isn't even a Federal helmet law. For some reason the Federal government "protects" you when you drive a car but they don't give a sh%! about you when you climb on your Harley. Most motorcycle riders are white males...not a protected class. I wonder if I'm onto something here.

Bruce| 12.11.09 @ 3:31PM

Waxing nostalgic:) Never owned a Beatle, but worked on dozens of them in my dads service station as a teen in the early 60's. Never was or has been a car more simple to work on. I suppose many of us here are old enough to remember when doing your own tuneup consisted of at most $20 in parts, a dwell meter, and a point file. Set those points with a matchbook cover in a pinch, right? I was taught by an old mechanic (my garndpa) to first put one hand lightly on the fender while adjusting the dwell (forgot those pesky factory settings!), then for final tune watch the radio antenna. If it moved even slightly - it's running rough! Got a radiator leak? Toss in a bottle of course ground black pepper (still works, btw). Emergency fan belt? Talk your date into removing one stocking and wind it up.

I bought my son an 06 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi. You cannot do ANYthing to that car without a Sun machine - every damned thing in the car is controlled by the computer! Backyard mechanics? A thing of the past. The gubmint doesn't WANT us messing with our rides! Job security for "factory trained mechanics (Pop called them - correctly - "parts changers") Diagnostics? Hah - plug the sucker in - if a code doesn't pop "there's nothing wrong with it" .. until you leave the shop and get stranded down the road a few miles. I wish I'd have kept my 70 Chevelle SS454/450hp LS-6 motor. Modified up its ass. M-22 Muncie, 4:56 gears, headers, 13:5 compression and a huge Holley carb. Actual dyno HP 700+ - yet it still gave me 18mpg!

c. stryker| 12.11.09 @ 7:15PM

65 bug was my first car,could not destroy it,i floated it,crashed it etc. would not go over 70 mph which probably saved my life as a teenager.
noisy hot and slow but i kind of miss her.
got a 71 pontiac lemans when i was 19 and was in heaven,power,ac and a radio i could hear!

JMM| 12.12.09 @ 12:09AM

Brings back sweet memories of nights long years agowith Sharon parked in her VW van on a lonely road...

The new ones are truly "little girls" cars, no real man would ever be seen in a car with flowers on the dashboard. That is why they failed and I'm glad they did.

Richard Baker| 12.12.09 @ 11:37AM

Had a '57 with a roller instead of a gas pedal while stationed in Germany, a '59 with the canvas sunroof, a '67 convertible, and learned to drive in my Dad's '58, Beetles all. My last VW was a '78 Bus that I bought new in Hawaii while stationed at Schofield Barracks. Once got 14 people in it for a trip to a local restaurant. I'd own any of these cars again. Can't say that I'd want the lastest iteration. Beetles, RIP.

Richard Baker| 12.12.09 @ 2:11PM

Correction: Latest iteration not lastest iteration.

JamesTheDreamer| 12.12.09 @ 9:28PM

I had a '72 Beetle in College....the best car in the world for a college student...and college mate of mine also had one of the same year, and we drove it 125 miles in the blizzard of '78 to get to our girl friends house....imagine the bottom of the vehicle scraping on the snow on Interstate 70 between Dayton Ohio and Indianapolis Indiana...we were scared, but shouldn't have been...that little Beetle took us to our destination and back with NO problems...Oh the memories...

The Gibster| 12.13.09 @ 11:35AM

Lest we not forget the fickle consumer. The new Bettle seemed to hold the same reputation as a Subee station wagon, an Earth-Muffin Mobile.

Novelty wears off even faster when it's coupled with trying to make some socio-political statement.

I don't want to change the world, I just want to be able to change my own air filter, plugs and oil.

Ron| 12.13.09 @ 7:45PM

First car I ever had was a 68 bug. I've owned at least a half dozen over the years but the first always has a special place in your heart. I learned a lot of things in that little bug.

Aaron| 12.20.09 @ 2:18PM

Grrr... The VW Beetle did NOT have a unibody. Why does everyone always say this? There is a rudimentary chassis which the transaxle, engine, steering and suspension is attached to, and the body bolts to this. VW didn't make a unibody car until the 411 and 412 in 1968.

edward Frost| 12.22.09 @ 4:13AM

eric peters clearly knows nothing about the beetle, given his comments on the construction being unibody, I doubt he has ever actually looked at one- utter drivel this piece of journalism.

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poptropica | 4.9.10 @ 9:40PM

I’ll have a Poptropica full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You Poptropica

Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale poptropica

You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out. poptropica
When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. poptropica
I’ll have a full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!poptropica