Originally Posted by alamostation

Go whole hog! Get a real beetle, like a pre-62. 40 HP. Heater system with knobs instead of levers. Fill up the gas tank in the trunk. Flip the floor switch when you run out of gas because there is no gas gauge. FM only radio, which was a real problem on my father's '58, because the only local FM station was in Cortland, NY.

On the positve side of owning one in Ithaca, NY when I was a kid, it was the hip car for Cornell professors and students. With the rear engine, it was one of the few cars that could handle the hills in winter. 35 MPG. Ithaca had more VW's per capita than any place in the world, except maybe Wolfsburg. Later Ithaca had more Volvos in the '90's than most places in Sweden, but for different reasons.