1956 Volkswagen Beetle
You can’t exactly compile a list of the best cars for sale from the past 100 years without including at least one example of Volkswagen’s top selling (21 million sold worldwide between 1938 and 2003) Type 1 Beetle. Is the Beetle slow, unpleasantly styled, and terrible? Sure…but anyone born in the middle of the century will have some memorable experience riding in the front or back of one (my own experience was as a 5 year old being crowded in the back seat with a few of my siblings for a few hours in Washinton DC beltway traffic while the driver smoked a particularly odorous cigar). Find this 1956 Volkswagen Beetle offered for $8,000 in Venice, CA via craigslist. This
post is part of DT’s 2016 Birthday Celebration of 100 cars;
enjoy the ride!
My own knowledge of the Beetle is as follows: there is something called split window Beetle, and then an oval window Beetle. These are more valuable than the later normal window versions. And there is something called a Super Beetle, which is apparently not that Super because they sell for roughly the value of a piece of chrome trim for an oval window Beetle. That is all you really need to know about Beetles, unless you are unfortunate enough to own one…then you will need to know how to push start, tow, and sell your Beetle (in that order)…but I can’t help you with those.
See a nastier/dirtier/filthier rag in a picture on craigslist? tips@dailyturismo.com
Whenever I think of a beetle as a slow motion blister on the heel of traffic I remember the Dung Beetle on Street Outlaws:
speedsociety.com/street-outlaws-deleted-scenes-the-dung-beetle/
Hey! I drove my Beetle today. It required neither push starting nor towing nor selling. They are great cars if you take off all the aftermarket crap that people invariable saddle them with, and return as much as possible to OE spec mechanically. Except for the tweedle-bleet muffler; mine does not have that ridiculous sounding appendage.
$8k is a good deal for an Oval; being mounted on a '71 pan means it will drive much better but is worth less than an original lift-throttle-oversteer-happy swing axle pan.
Whenever I think of a beetle as a slow motion blister on the heel of traffic I remember the Dung Beetle on Street Outlaws:
speedsociety.com/street-outlaws-deleted-scenes-the-dung-beetle/
I had a ratty '69 Bug for a few years.
I flogged that thing over what seems like every two-lane road between SF and Marysville and between the semi-trailing IRS, decent tires, and the whiff of negative camber that comes from twenty years of rear torsion-bar sag it had no significant bad chassis habits whatsoever, at least none you could make happen with 53 raging HP from its freshly-rebuilt pancake. The rear weight distribution made the steering light and precise, and the minimalist drum brakes plenty effective.
It had no heater to speak of, and while Bugs may be reliable they only stay that way if you feed them regular maintenance on a schedule no modern auto buyer would tolerate, but it was mostly a treat to own.