OK so how did you all get hooked on VW's tell tell....
the time when I did was when I was on morton Island zippin up the front beach in my suzuki seara when this BAJA flew pass me(I was doin 80k's)so I went down to the hard stuff,put me 4x into 2 wheel drive to catch the dubbie....yeah FAT CHANCE!! so within a month I had bought my frist VW (baja) and that was it.
so thanks to the dude who burnt me on the beach that day,you changed my life:thumb
ROB

Well, I like most people was in the habit of buying a younger car each time I could afford it, only to be dissapointed at how fast they are dissintergrating, everything has been made with the idea that it only has to last a few years then get crushed, and they are rusting and snapping and cracking way before their time and I got the shits with it.
I was on a round about of buying new cars because they wouldnt last.
So I got to thinking "what did I want next?"
I work as a Prop maker for film and came up with a Delorean, yes a Delorean, thats what I want, its stainless steel {cant rust} and I can customize it to look just like the one from Back to the Future, But I couldnt quite afford it, even though I found one for $9800 US, and then theres the whole try and source parts for one when you want to use the car as a daily driver.
I was offered a 69 model beetle for free
while on that train of thought, and then I thought about Herbie the love bug, obviously a beetle is a quality car or they wouldnt be around still, and much easier to get parts for, thats it I thought, I love Herbie, ever since I saw Montecarlo at the driveinn as a 7 year old, there was a Herbie replica at the drive inn and I was too young to know it wasnt the same car I was watching on the screen and couldnt understand why nobody else was as excited as me.
Suddennling I couldn't understand why I hadnt decided to make Herbie earlier.
It was the obvious choice for me, When I drive into the studios it really helps people to know who I am and what I do, because if someone says Get tony onto the job, "tony who?" Tony with the Herbie car, Oh that Tony yeah righto I know who he is.
So I started my search, I needed to find a good example of the right model, Details detail details, I know some people are happy to have numbers and stripes on anything and call it Herbie, I've ever seen the numbers and stripes on a Ford Probe, making it" The Love Probe ", so I finnally found a good example with a minimum amount of rust, in hindsight I might have done even better if I had the patience to wait.
When I bought Herbie he had Fibreglass flared guards etc and I was so Unfamiliar with VWs at that point that I didnt even realise the difference till after I bought him.
So I set to and did everything myself, Paint, decals seats carpet all that stuff, I even did the hood lining 3 times before I admitted defeat and got it done Professionally, although I regret that as the I could have matched the end result myself and kept the money, Anyhow, I got Herbie half made and went to California for 2 months to see my Brother, while there I started to notice how VW orientated California is and decided to go to a few shows, thats where I got hooked on splitties, I saw how cool they could be.
So when I got home I went hunting for one. bought that, and was so happy about it too.
So I finnished Herbie and put him on the road, because till that point I was a member of a few different VW clubs and was getting right into it and had 2 reasonably well saught VWs and yet had never even driven one anywhere.
which I found quite amusing.
Once Herbie hit the road, that was it, I knew that I was hooked, and now when you look at my driveway you might think its an unhealthy obsession.

Justturned 18, Went to work one day, and BAM! STYLIN was staring me in the face! Paris' car just blew me away! There was no other car I wanted! That was now 9 years ago! I still like that car, even though Im not really a fan of post 67's.

N!

i watched like endless summer or something and saw how sweet the kombi's looked loaded up witha heap of boards and mates and i just had to get 1 :bounce

it's in the blood. (4th generation scarily enough, only 3rd from my mothers side).

that and they are easy to fix and look so damn cool. i really wanted a camper but couldn't afford it. so i went out and brought a beetle.

as with herbie, i should have had more patience, paid a bit too much for a car with a bit too much rust in it, but hey i wanted a project, i guess i got one. but in the short week and a half i have owned herbert, well i now know what i am looking for when i buy my convertable (or is it cabriolet?)

i took him for a test drive and went, this car is just too cool. of course never having driven one it took me 3 minutes or so to get out of the park (damn reverse).

well im 3rd genaration i have photos of when i was 4 with bugs in them as long as i can remember siting as a young kid behind the back seat and grew with them i had my first car at 9 a 63ish bug my second at i14teen a 68 wich was my brothers first car in 1988 then i got my first regod vw when i was 15 i worked 22hours a week 2 by her from the car yard for $ 2600 and just sold it cople of months ago (sad now) but i need a new love so i got my manx and il find a nother something soon i have photos of most of all this il try and get the scand 2 show u :thumb

Addicted from an early age, went to my first formula Vee race when I was 2 weeks old. Practically grown up at race tracks and have been around VW ever since.

I moved up to Brisbane from Sydney just over 3 years ago. When I lived in Sydney I caught a train to work so we only had the one car which the Mrs mainly drove.

However with the move to Brisbane we needed a second car as I needed to drive to work. I love old cars and thought this was my oportunity to get a cool older car.

I was checking out old Valiants and Falcons but none of them really got me exited. I've always been a bit of Kombi fan and spotted a twincab ute in the trading post. I went and checked it out and I thought I gotta get myself one of these. This one was a bit pricey so I didn't buy it, but set out to find myself one.

A couple of weeks later I located a 72 Twincab ute that was in my price range. I checked it out, fell in love and brought it.

Being desperate and not having much experience with VW's I should'nt have jumped in so quickly. It had quite a few problems that I was'nt aware of and cost me quite alot of $$$$$ to get it passed for a roadworthy.

Anyway she's a real gem now and I am now a fully certified VW nut

I always liked kombis since i was about 9 or 10, and couldnt afford a real one so started to collect toy models of them. Its not much of a collection only about 5 but still they kept me interested.

When the day came to purchase my own car, i decided on a kombi. Helped along by some of mates, u had kombis, including Pyro, it made the decision much easier.

Ive had my bus now for about 8 months now and still loving it!!!!

:thumb:thumb

Genetics......My grandmothers brother (fathers side) got one of the first 6 beetles to arrive in Australia. she also bought one several years later. My grandfather bought one of the first fastbacks in OZ after also having owned a beetle. My father bought one new when he killed his morris in 1964 and has always owned VWs up until 1996. When I bought my first car in 1985 it just happened to be a Fastback - 1968 model. My younger sisters first car was a fatsi wagen. Sadly I'm the only one in the family to still have the disease but little sis recons she will get a Beetle again in a couple of years!!!! As they say....once you've been bit.........:bounce

my first vw was back in 79. the old man bought me a 63 beetle for my first car with money from my weekend job. drove it for 2 to 3 years .and discovered that when i was bashing around (like you do when your young ) through water. would stall it . so decided to baja it for the total sum of 3oo dollars ( full kit ) then finaly gave into the v8 rage that started back then. now have bought a vw for my daughter ...but as i restore it ,i find that it going to be very hard to share it
:cry:cry

hmmm. I was born and bred a true blue Holden man, all my family had holdens, hotted up ones usually... and then Mr Odd One Out [me] had to go and ruin everything for them.
After frequenting the summernats throughout my teens I had seen just about every possible variation of a fricken torana and a monaro, and was just bored to death of them. [plus i had a 10 year collection of street machines so that didnt help]....

I decided i wanted a car no one else I knew had seen, let alone owned, and for some strange reason it had to be a wagon [i think it was thegriswald's 'family truckster' that did it to me]... that coupled with a lift home one day in a bay window meant I was on the road to vw-ness.

started looking at cars and fell for the first T3 i saw. and bought it. and lovingly restored it... the rest is history.

... my family are still waiting for me to wise up and buy a V8. sigh.

I can thank Peter Korsche on the Central Coast for giving me the bug [sorry].

I drove passed one of his shops in the early 80's a drove in and had a chat one day. I had a Triumph Dolomite in those days. Peter showed me the light via some early Hot VW's and VW Trends and the rest his history.

He then moved premises in the mid 80's, with Saturday mornings being the prime get together time of the Central Coast dubbers, from which the Central Coast VW Club was formed. It's now defunct, but I hear Peter is looking at forming another club....AVOCA....Aircooled Volkswagen Owners Club of Australia. Cool name huh?

Great times, great rides, great monthly meetings, great mates....:beer:beer:beer:beer:party

Squiz....

Funnily enough, I never used to like VWs. I can still remember having 5 white, early sixties Beetles hanging around the back of the carport when I was a kid - two were daily drivers, one was a 'spare' goer, the fourth was semi stripped and the fifth sat up the back and we used it as a cubby. Vivid memories of swinging on the steering wheel, pretending I was driving. Nevertheless, I thought they were a piece of $hit. Memories of being crammed into the 'dickie seat' in summer didn't help generate any fondness.

I really hadn't had much experience with VWs until about 9 years ago. I did have a mate in Year 12 who drove a red Baja with 15" F100 rims on VW centres, but the stories of his misfortunes (including the dreaded swingaxle tuck-&-roll, and an engine fire) didn't help me to appreciate VWs at all.

As a teenager, I was right into cars... I bought magazines; mainly Modern Motor or Wheelswith the occasional Street Machine or Fast Fours and Rotaries thrown in. I was also really into drawing cars. I found a kit I liked the look of in a magazine and went about drawing my own version, modified to suit my tastes: a ute with a mid-mounted V8. (See attached picture)

Eventually I found myself paying off a late-model car which was depreciating as fast as I was paying for it. My wife and I were doing foster-care at the time, and had anything up to five fosterkids, as well as Heather's youngest daughter, in the house at any one time. I was looking for an eight-seater, with a budget of about $2000.

Now the sub-$2000 market didn't offer much in 1994 - lots of early model Japanese vans, full of rust, cheap build quality, with brakes and handling unsuitable for a passenger vehicle. I finally decided on a kombi, even though I knew very little (well, nothing at all) about them.

We decided to go for a drive past the local car yards and see what was around. The very first yard I found had an as-traded '76 2L FI microbus. I test drove it and liked it so much I bought it there and then.

I spent about $400 getting it Road-worthy and maybe another $300 on repairs to the fuel-injection system and tuning, then drove it hard for the next 8 years. I took it along four-wheel-drive tracks, through mud, over ruts, and even got it airborne several times. I used it to move house, tow car-trailers, cart firewood and to go camping. It did everything I asked of it, and I loved it.

Needless to say, our next vehicle was a VW too, a '70 fastback. :thumb

Hmmm. Lot's of good stories.

Mine is simply that after selling my notebook computer for twice what it was worth, I saw a beach buggy sitting on the side of the road on my way home, it was for sale for a little less than I now had in hand. I had a look, got convinced that it was time to indulge in a lifelong secret interest in buggies, and at the same time was convinced I wasn't going to touch that buggy even if the guy paid me to take it.

Within a few weeks I had a Supa Sport body, a truck load of parts, a good 63 Beetle as a donor and a workshop in town.

Now I'm moving up to another beach buggy (V6 auto) and we're toying with the idea of a Beetle convertible and a 23 window Deluxe for around town.

One of Jimoen's famous lines... "It's alright, once you're in".:bounce

im 3rd generation (dad had 1 and grandpa had 3!) even though dad was adamant that i wouldnt ever own a beetle! ive loved them since i was a little girl cos they are cute and loud and looked fun!

plus there was the time our family was driving back from sydney and we were behind a gorgeous sky blue convertible bug that had the same dog as our dog in it, the dog looked pretty happy! the bug also looked pretty happy!

ok ok domes turn

well my dad works at j&f motors vw specialist and the work sell vw's aswell and my t3 was for sale there and no one baught it so my dad asked for it and the boss sed take it for nothing and i like it so i kept it thats how i got into vw's plus my uncle hadda k-g vert when i was like 6 or 7
soooo yeahh i loved them since then

dom!!!

I happened across an issue of VW Trends in about 1990, saw a Cal Look Fastback & had to have one! Bought my first Type 3 in 91, sold it a couple of years later (because I thought I needed air con!) waited 10 years & bought the 65 Square. I spent 10 years wishing I hadn't sold the Fasty!! But I'm back!

My love for them started when i was oh about 12 years young back in the cold dark north of England ! (Who by the way are gonna win tomorrow!!!)
I used to ride past a housae that had a baja in the garden ! That was it for me was hooked ! Pestered my parts at 12 for one but they said nope! so i saved my paper round money and bought one and made this !!

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RQAAALYTz5WVzO!idAcMrlCrJUWbDBn1Z25WzH11*uMWB68sDN1hq5zyTjTNmlwTrqleCwGrePNBd4Y28QXl3GtJxjxcibEu21hv6N64Gvc/bug1%262.JPG[/img]

Had it till after i moved here it has gone to a good home now !!
Had it for 15 years.
Then whilst travelling to and fro Oz last year picked up this

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0QgDLArwTVo97giZ!MM53l7eh5!eYJDZVCSyYUARk1dQp3rgJmodcqOHSVl7Sd5EiVW3Q69h4CGpz6M!CE9ArYhup*qxlTW95MlO8Phx98pM/dbug2.jpg[/img]

and mrs's kombi and an oval in resto.

Still don't have a baja which first started me off down this road.

man some great stories here and probably a bloody lot more.better that the usual shit "I lov ford cause #@*$ holdens suck mate" or what ever!
keep em coming:thumb

My addiction started when I was a paper boy at the local news agent, (in the mid 70's), I started reading Hot VW's magazine.

Then when the time came to get my 1st car in '79, Dad found a $1400.00 '70 model Beetle that had just been traded at the local Toyota dealer, I parted with my hard earned savings and the rest is history.

I haven't owned anything else but VW's since then.

OK, im 3rd generation, but that has nothign to do with the reasoning. i had never even seen the interior of a VW, much less ridden in one, and i had only seen one photo of my fathers before i bought mine. i wanted a car that was practical, would look right at home by the beach, and could take me on a year long journey around aus. oh yeah, and i had next to nothign to spend. the 70s jap campers were ugly and horribly fitted out for someone over 6foot tall, the Bedfords were bombs, Id even considered fitting out an old sandman or stationwagen, then i had a good look at a few kombis and never looked back.

all started bout 6 months ago and i am alreddy hooked my dad bought a kombi as a present and luved eva since

first one at 14 years old, $50 fire trail stormer 1200cc of pure grunt..

I saw this great VW in a service station around 10 years ago and fell in love with it. I knew nothing about them at all. That was when I was a poor bloke and wanted it soooo bad. It had Vintage Vee dub stickers on it. Soon after I bought a 62 beetle with NO rust and couldn't believe a car that old could have no rust. A couple of years later my brother's girlfriend wrote it off.
This year that first beetle I saw 10 years ago was at the nationals and it was for sale! I thought to myself I gotta have this, so I took it for a drive, got the money out with a CREDIT CARD, and now I'm the proud owner of the first VW I fell in love with...

well, i guess I can start off by saying, i'm one of those weird girls who are into cars (vw's, sports cars, car racing, the works)
Been into cars ever since I was little, but always had a love for VW's.
The kombi I own now was sitting in the carpark of a local pub for about six months before I got it. I used to drive past it everyday and say to myself, "Man I want that car!!"
So one day I bit the bullet and put a note on the bonnet saying, hey gorgeous kombi I wanna buy you, do u think ur owner would part with you? (not verbatim of course :P) and the rest, as they say, is history! :bounce
But I love my kombi and would only ever think of parting with this one, if I got another better VW!!

Looks like owning VW's is hereditary, there's quite a few of us who are 3rd generation owners, I'm another.
Dad and grandad both owned Beetles and Splittys, I've always loved them, and so has my Wife, thats why I married her!
I did stray from the fold for a while, and had a couple of 64 EH Holdens, did them both up one was stolen, and the other was sold.
MY wife Just had to have a Beetle, all our kids were brought home in that car from the hospital. I had her for about 10-12 years and bought a Kombi, I had a bit of temporary madness and sold the Beetle:cry, I still have the Kombi, and I now have a 66 Beetle I'm getting back on the road.
And my kids all want a Beetle as well, so we are going for 4 generations, in our family.
Rob....

Well, we've always had kid's and a motorbike, but when child number four came along and my hubby wanted a new bike I put my foot down and insisted we needed a car first.

A couple of mornings later he turns up with a $1500 kombi and off he goes to buy a $20 000 motorbike :o

First look inside and I burst into tears.....absolute disaster.

Now, after having sold it to buy another kombi with less rust , I found myself sitting inside crying once again. But this time trying to come to terms with the fact that it had gone too far rust wise and it needed to be sold. It wasn't just a car, but had become a family member.

As much as I love air-conditioning I don't think that I could ever part with my VW

Hey RobnJo,
Sounds like you struck a chord here,
fastest moving thread thats not a word game, Good work....

It seems every one has a story they want to tell but only here can they find someone who is interested.
Sorry about my novel of a post, a bit like Grandpa Simpson and the checkout at the supermarket,
"interesting story about this coin......... 1942 I believe, it was a tuesday, got up to make my breakfast, set the toaster to 2, {medium brown} and then..............................................."

Cheers Tony

Great Stories.
Mine started in the 70's; the Kombi was and still is the perfect surf wagon. My XL Falcon didn't cut it anymore so I scored this great '66 splitty panelvan that was nicely camperized with the 'ol double bed in back, kept it for about 10 years: wish I still had it!
Andy