dont you hate it when u see an old bus or beetle unfairly run down. we were driving down the freeway yeaterday and came up behind a kombi towing a catamaran. it was doing 105, not bad considering, but as we pulled up alongside i saw that the body was stuffed, the engine sounded like crap, heaps of crap homemade accessories and the wheels!-the wheels were 14inch on front and 15 on rear and the rears had a tow in of what looked like half a foot at the top / \ ! such a damn shame....

Agreed. Unfortunately Kombis are SO well designed, so strong, so dependable and reliable that they just run forever. They can take all sorts of abuse and neglect and keep on going.

Which means that non-enthusiast owners get lazy and don't maintain them. Then I bet they bitch about the 'stupid' Kombi that eventually breaks down, 50,000km after its last oil change or top up.

Im also starting to notice that younger Kombi drivers - say under 30 years of age - don't tend to wave back. If you're not going to love your Kombi, you might as well be driving a Hiace or Urvan.

mm i really hate run down dubs... especially most beetles that are pink and/or a chop convertible. They are usually run down.

ratty kombi's are just as bad too. i find a couple of younger kombi drivers wave back to me though phil

I think the VWs on the streets are starting to divide into one of two camps - either really run down (owned by non-enthusiasts), or really nice ones (owned by us!) Ones in reasonably good condition are getting rarer as they soon become either more ratty, or more nice.

Yeah some young owners do wave to me Che, but not all of them do. We older blokes seem to do it a lot more.

I was driving down to Byron from Brisvegas last Sunday and pulled over to help a fellow Kombi driver out! He had stopped on the shoulder of the freeway about 2-5 kms past that huge servo at Beenleigh. I know nothing about cars but thought he might need to borrow a phone or something. I think he cooked his engine- very little oil and very very hot dipstick!! Anyway I found $10 on the side of the road.....karma!!
Hope his kombi is alright

this whole thing is hard to generalise,
some of the most enthusistic camper owners own some of the tattiest campers,
& that is because they literally live in them, which makes it very hard to maintain, especially appearance, sme of the tattiest utes & vans are owned by tradesmen who have used them for years for the purpose they were designed for, they are enthusiastic because the vehicle just keeps doing it's job. An old lady living near me has for at least the last 25 years owned a very early fastback, tatty, but maintained as necessary and she has no desire to ever replace it , because she is enthusiastic about it, & the way it just keeps doing it's job

good one kim, agree
:bounce

I've seen alot of young kids getting into Beetles lately - lots of P plates. And most of them will give a wave. Hopefully there's a new breed coming through.

Squiz.....

I guess some people "Love their cars to death". I have noticed myself when i was driving around in my notch some older drivers would toot and wave but younger drivers would ignore me or flip me off if i gave them a toot and a wave.. I'm 26 din't know where that puts me tho!

I don't think I've ever got a wave from an 'elderly' driver. Can't believe someone would flip you off when you wave at them???


*sigh* sad world.


Jay

People do strange things to VWs today I saw a Karman Ghia convertable baby blue paint Dark blue roof real nice till you get to the wheels. They had put cheep Kmart plastic hubcaps that look like mags on it.

The original wheels would have looked beter without hub caps.

Its just strange

around Liverpool way - the younger guys wave and the older "cranky ones " dont even notice that they are in a Kombi.
And as for those pink........................

pic is from last month at Flat Four drive-in
Night.

Don't be too quick to judge by external appearances. My current project would look pretty rough, rust bubbling under the faded paint, headliner and panels hanging in shards, etc. But if you crawl underneath, you will find an immaculately restored chassis, many new suspension components and the engine and tranny spotless. A restoration takes a lot of time and money I've decided to take care of the important things before I get to apperances.

And I like the humourous look of a 6 foot plus guy in a tatty little beetle! (I also had to fit a sports steering wheel, so I could get my legs in.)

I dunno where I fit either. I am a very strong vw person.had at a minimum of 1 for at least 13 years. I cant say that I take good care though. Id rather surf the net than change a spark plug.

I'm with you Chris (except I haven't had time to surf the net much lately.) I'm enthusiastic about almost any Volkswagen.:thumb

My kombi was going to cop a paintjob this year, before Valla, but it looks like I may be rebuilding the 2.0 litre first, just to make sure I get home again. Function definitely comes before form.

I have (and like) the cheap plastic wheelcaps, because I was getting tired of looking at the 15" Mercedes steelies I bought. The bus was starting to look like an urban assault vehicle - stock height, bullbar, sunvisor, full-length mesh-floor roofrack and matt black wheels. Sure I'd prefer to have alloys, but I don't have the money, and it's really only wank factor anyway.

Each to their own, I say.:thumb

[Edited on 15-3-2003 by KruizinKombi]