"Punch Buggy <Insert Color Here>!" Is VW ruining the game???
 

I'm sure many of you grew up playing "Punch Buggy" or "Slug Bug" where the first person to spot a VW Beetle would shout those fateful words plus the color and give his/her sibling, friend, cousin, (maybe if you were brave) parent a good punch in the arm. Never having fully matured, I still play the game with my kids. Of course my daughter has the ability to pick them out behind 75 cars and/or buildings so needless to say a trip to ME rendered a pretty good black and blue on my arm. :) (And yes, I allow her to use the new Beetle. OK with some, not with others.) But I digress.

Volkswagen's recent "Punch Dub" campaign *ahem* bugs me since it completely bastardizes the original game by opening it up to the entire VW line. Who am I kidding, it annoys the heck out of me.

Am I the only one who has a problem with it? :o

Probably.

This is like a funny game kids used to play when I was growing up. If we were in a school bus and someone saw a guy with a turban, you grabbed the guy's ear next to you and pulled and he had to guess what color the turban was. He'd let go when you guessed what it was.

It annoys the heck out of me also. VW give me a break. If they were going to get it going again they should of done it with the new bug only.

Maybe it is a sinister German plot to get Americans to beat up each other?

OTOH, maybe they don't sell enough bugs for that game to work so they extend it to the others in hopes that people will buy a VW, any VW so others will punch others?

"Bugs" me too! :D

Our family chooses to play the "Slug Bug" game in its original "purist" mode, where only "vintage" Beetles count!

Although the lack of air-cooled Beetle sightings has forced the game to evolve into "Cadillac Smack" and PT "Cruiser Bruiser"...:rolleyes:

Yes, they are ruining the game. But I understand their concept- I want to punch myself everytime I look at all the broken parts of my Golf :eek:

I like it. I love the ending with Ray Charles. The Amish guys are pretty funny as well. I get a good chuckle off each time I see it.

We played the old slug bug as well but my wife and I have change the rules a bit for today's car market. Original bugs are worth two points and new bugs are worth one. When we go to CA to visit my dad we go back to the original version as CA still has a fair amount of originals.

VW is a bastardized company. I will never own a newer one after seeing how they treated their ROOTS (the Aircooled community). Basically when new management came in during the 80's, they wanted to get away from the "Aircooled" side. Which was fine, but they did so at the cost of the people who helped them build their empire. All dealerships were ordered to toss/destroy all NOS Aircooled parts on the shelves to make room for new, and special tools/diagnostic machines were tossed in dumpsters. Now some dealers had workers who actually cared, and some parts/tools were saved. But there was no doubt tons of parts wasted/lost across the country.

So you cant really buy anything for your simple aircooled VW at your VW dealership. Well, maybe if a later model Rabbit/Golf used the same part. Which was rare, but some relay boxes and such are still available at the dealer.

Also VW corporate goes around bullying people on the internet who use the VW logo (even the period correct one) on their website. I'm talking about individual people who put up a website with pictures of their Beetle, they aren't even selling anything. Some people didn't respond and VW got the site taken down until the "copyright infringement" was changed/removed.

The fact that they completely shunned the AC'ed crowd and continue to be *******s astonishes me. And what astonished me more is that they started using the original Beetle in all their new advertisements. VW needs a swift kick in the nads. They may make OK cars now, but their previous actions don't make up for the fact.

I personally have owned 4 VWs since 1985 - 85 GTI, 86 Jetta Coupe, 2001 Passat GLX and 2003 Passat W8. Others in the family include(d) 74 Ghia, 97 Jetta and 2005 Jetta. I never even heard of the "Punch Buggie" thing until my first dealership advisor position in 2000. It was at a VW dealer and I took a loaner - Black Beetle - home for a weekend. I had to take my god-daughter for a ride and she did the punch buggie thing to me.. I promptly turned her seat heater to 5 and fried her short-wearing a$$ :D
The punch buggie thing has annoyed me since.

Driving the old VW around last week and out of the corner of my eye I caught a road constuction guy belt his coworker in the arm but good.

The kid who lives across the street has been banned from playing since fall of 2001 as he would wake up and promptly hit his sister twice.

My kids and I play but only beetles qualify, and the known local ones are only good for a tap on the arm, since we know where they are usually parked. VW dealer drivebys also dont qualify

I think the ads are kinda funny but the campaign on the whole pretty sad.
I'm in the market for a car and will not be looking at ANY recent VW's.

does this count?

Hey Swampyankee, when I was a kid my friends and I use to play a game called "Punch a Kojac", but after a few rounds of the game my friends and I got got tired of getting our asses kicked by bald people including old bald women. :eek:

If you only knew how much my arm hurt from Drezzells constant punch buggying.....

Duly noted. Looking for one more @$$ kicking? ;) :D

If you think you can "Kojac". :cool: