whats a beatle like on long trips

hey i want to go to melb after christmas whats the bug like on long trips??????????anyone do it,, thanks colleen

The lowback seats are a worry but otherwise the car will be fine, on an easy freeway drive.

Make sure you check your water levels along the way in case of overheating.

I can't say I've done that particular drive but in the past I have gone on camping trips with my baja convertable..
One trip was to Monkey Mia and Kalbarri on the North West Coast.. 2 Baja soft tops, We spent 2 days just driving on the beach for that one and were away for a total of 4 days.. Got to Geraldton and found left hand side nut, (the big one in the middle of the rear brake drum that takes some huge amout of torque was loose) Only problem whole trip..(Thanks Wayne Polletti Geraldton VW Specialist)

Another trip was to Mount Jackson, which is North/North West of Kalgoorlie.. 2 baja soft tops on that run too.. That was 3 nights / 4 days and included many k's along the rabbit proof fence.. Fantastic trip.. copped a smashed front screen and found a farmer about 30 k's out of Mukinbuddin with an old beetle in his junk pile, bought the screen for 20 bucks, fitted it in his paddock and off we went.. Other than that, not probs..

Another trip was my car only, down South to Augusta taking in Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River, Pemberton and a few others.. Again 4 days away without a single problem..
As long as the car is in reasonable condition and you service it before you leave, you should be ok... Having said that though, you never know, till it happens.. Enjoy the trip..

i heard that ringo was a pain but Paul and John got car sickness and George was fine😀

sweet, nothing better except in a KG.

its a bit noisy at highway speeds compared to a modern car (thats an understatement!) So tell your passengers to bring earplugs unless they like the drone noise of a flat4 🙂

The lowback seats get uncomfortable for me after about 1hr of city driving, but thats more because the factory steering column is slightly to the left of the centreline of the seat which causes you to sit lopsided.

I used to drive Sydney Brisbane quite often in the Beetle.

Make sure you take plenty of time as it is relatively slow
and really dangerous when dicing with trucks, caravans etc
Overtaking is a pain as most of the lanes are uphill!!!

If you need to get anywhere in a hurry take a modern car

i'have done a few longer trips in the bug. take ear plugs!!, get a good service and tune before you go. and drive to the car's speed. Eg stock sit on 95. mine sat on the speed limit the whole way no problem.

its what you make of it!

if you enjoy driving your beloved bug then youd be keen to enjoy the trip. looking forward to the fun it presents as well as the potential of getting there on time, late or not at all.

if youre not such a big fan and maybe only a pretend bug/old car lover then youre probably not gonna be so keen and wont look at the fun of the journey.

i know evertime we go somewhere i just remind teh lady to take what comes. ie if its a smooth trip then great, but if not jsut expect and accept it. its all part of the vw driving experience. as for seats suspensions and speeds etc, well of course you get what whats coming as afterall its an old car.

its not about the journey, but about the wonder of if youll will get there or not. 😉

hope you have a good safe and fun trip.

hey thanks i was just a bit worried cause have no raditor and was wonderin about the over heating,if she got to hot,seats are a bit of a pain i was planing to do the trip in 2 days... may see some of you guys out on the road...................................colleen

Set your speed on the cruise control, turn the air conditioning on and make sure the lumber support on your bucket seat is set just right and watch the scenery fly silently by.

I do Byron to Sydney and back 4/5 times a year, in an old splitty, never had a problem, maintain your VW, drive to the conditions of the car and enjoy...

it often takes me 14 hours +

but i surf along the way, sometimes takes me two hours just to get out of Ballina, visit Arrawarra (when its good its good), woolgoolga, Cresent, Port, plenty of places to play in the water wonderland...I love it.

Oh, and there is a few secret toy and model shops between Byron and Sydney

I just drove to melbourne from sydney area and it was great.

Really comfy and cruised really well at 100kmh.

take it easy and enjoy the drive.

I just drove to melbourne from sydney area and it was great.

Really comfy and cruised really well at 100kmh.

take it easy and enjoy the drive.

I just drove to melbourne from sydney area and it was great.

Really comfy and cruised really well at 100kmh.

take it easy and enjoy the drive.

keep your oil levels to a premium, as well as fuel. it helps. ive done the smaller sydney/canberra journey dozens of times, my only concern was the noise, but my fully hec tick tick tick like a bomb bro sound system more than compensates for dakdakdakdakdak.

good luck with the trip,

P.S. get her checked out before you go

Make sure you have full roadside assistance before you go !!!


If it stops then you might want to kick the bumper bar, used to work for my old deceased 68 bug for a number of years !

I drove to Valla and froze my tits off. That's why I no longer have tits... Also i'm a bloke. Also I felt like I was in a tin can with a jack hammer going all the time. My car is particularly loud though and I still love it, but it's not the most comfortable for a long trip. I will have my heater back next week though, but I imagine summer could be too hot. My car's oil temperature varied enormously depending on whether I sat on 65mph or 70mph. Sometimes the smallest variation in speed would make the car run 10 to 20 deg hotter, and if I slowed down a little it would drop just as fast. For this reason alone it would be good to have an oil temperature guage. I think a standard engine would be fine though.

I drove Herbie from the Gold coast to coober pedy in south australia then to Adelaide then Melbourne via the great ocean road then back to see a mate in Sydney then home to the gold coast again and I even slept in the car more oftern than not.
But Herbie has electric leather Toyota MR2 seats and I am willing to be that that made a big difference.:thumb however he gave me no grief bar 1 flat tyre and a distributor that wandered off its set mark from day to day.
this was all done with the stock 1200 cc engine and was pretty good on fuel but I must admit that more modern technology has new cars returning better miles per Gallon these days but I wouldn't complain about the trip, It was an awesome adventure indeed, (we sat on between 70 and 80 mph on most of the open roads) nothing gave in but but I dont think the old 1200 would be too keen to do it again, But new gaskets and adjust the tappets back to something within a cooee of what they are supposed to be and it would probably be happy.
{PS} I found I was always loosing altitude at around 80 mph {IE Down hills}

For those that havent realised, Resto64 is right, the question was what is a beatle like, not beetle.

Very good paul.

Cheers
Dave

haha

thank you thank you ,i wish my brother George was here!!!

my spellings a bit off,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,its christmas heheheheh

looks like me and my BEETLE are of to the big smoke,,lucky i have a good sound system in her,,shes pretty loud...it will be like pushing a mower for 17hrs....noisey...now all i need is to get lost down there,,,,heard about the traffic in melb,different to bris,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,colleen

Good luck for the trip,
I would suggest the pacific as its closer to towns in case something goes wrong. The new England and Newell are good roads, just sometimes a wee bit far between towns if you are worried about your car.
Just watch out for those Trams and bloody turn right from the left thingys... damn mexicans!! :P

I drove my 71 super from Dubbo to Newcastle to sydney to Brisbane all in 4 days, My only tip is to watch the vapor lock when you stop the motor and carry a spare fan belt.

My brother drove his $400 kombi (72 ish, 1600 TP) from Kalgoorlie to Tumut in the Blue Mountains (NSW), no worries. All they had done was service on the motor and a new carby (stock). Oil temp guage was a boon - small variation in speed (from 65 to 70 mph) made a significant difference, guess they have a sweet spot.

This was also fully loaded with household crap - might have deadened the noise out a bit ! (plus his 10" sub squeezed between the front seats too !).

Worst thing was, 6 months after moving to Tumut with his GF at the time, they broke it off, so the kombi was packed up again, and driven all the way back to Perth (in 3 days, with 2 drivers).

Great little bus that one - we sold it about 12 months later for $1500 I think.

Just be realistic with your expectations, have an oil temp guage fitted and drive to the conditions.

Where is Tumut in the Blue Moutains?
Do you mean the snowy mountains?

Thats a fair effort

Yeah, sorry, snowy mountains. Us West Aussies get our mountains confused (you see, we live in a flat land.......).

Yeah, I was impressed too.

my beetle and i have driven from bega to batemans bay to canberra and back to bega on a regular basis. as its is my daily driver and with 2 boys playing sport - one of whom has to go to canberra on a regular basis- i clock up up to 1000km per week at times. never missed a beat, gives me 32 mpg. i drive about 90 km/h (55mph on my speedo). yes low back seats were a pain, but i have since replaced them with vw high backs, added a seat cover with a lower back support built in and i am as comfortable as ever! i also have a sports steering wheel which is a softer grip than the hard skinny original and that also helps with the drive. the car is regularly maintained by a local vw mechanic. she is stock standard 1500, so i dont think you will have any problems. if you go via the coast road, yes, the towns are closer and should anything go wrong, you can get help. if it happens, then it happens, but have faith, its a vw!

ps, if you happen to be passing thru bega, drop in and see ernie, he's a top mechanic!
enjoy the journey 🙂
ned

my beetle and i have driven from bega to batemans bay to canberra and back to bega on a regular basis. as its is my daily driver and with 2 boys playing sport - one of whom has to go to canberra on a regular basis- i clock up up to 1000km per week at times. never missed a beat, gives me 32 mpg. i drive about 90 km/h (55mph on my speedo). yes low back seats were a pain, but i have since replaced them with vw high backs, added a seat cover with a lower back support built in and i am as comfortable as ever! i also have a sports steering wheel which is a softer grip than the hard skinny original and that also helps with the drive. the car is regularly maintained by a local vw mechanic. she is stock standard 1500, so i dont think you will have any problems. if you go via the coast road, yes, the towns are closer and should anything go wrong, you can get help. if it happens, then it happens, but have faith, its a vw!

ps, if you happen to be passing thru bega, drop in and see ernie, he's a top mechanic!
enjoy the journey 🙂
ned

Just be realistic with your expectations, have an oil temp guage fitted and drive to the conditions.

Just wondering what an estimated cost on an oil temp guage is?
< $100
$100-200?
$200+?

I have no idea, just wanting to know what we'd be up for if we got one put in.

TIA.

thanks guys..........looks like i will have a great trip,i cant stand aeroplanes so the old bug will be in power mode....:rudolf......................colleen