"tortured with constant maintenance issues"---Amen
I thought I was the only one..... I had a Karman Ghia for 8 years and beetles before that... and built a 52 MGTD replica on a 71 chassis...... I finally got smart and changed to 1800 pushrod engined Subaru's...... they belong in the KISS category ( well, as much as a non diesel can fit that category).

Now I own a 1980 manual shift, manual window crank, manual AC control, NON sunroof 240d.

Larry , it is funny you mention a model A in this class...
I have a friend down the road whose family had land from before Texas becoming a part of the Union.... on Saturday nights they would go to town in their Model A KNOWING that half the way there they would have to take the pan off the car and file the rods down and put it back together ... and do it again on the way back...... this for a single 40 mile round trip to Austin....

The rod problem sounds much more like a Model T than a Model A. Even in a T, they had some sort of problem that was causing that. The Model A was a far superior engine to the T.

Have a great day,

My 73 220D was a manual shift with "four on the column." On the autobahn in '79 my main targets of opportunity were VW buses. They were popular among German hippies as well as stateside hippies. The VW bus was the only thing on the autobahn that I could pass except for MANN and MB diesel bobtail trucks that were overloaded. I had to be real careful when pulling into the passing lane at 60 mph. Chances were a Porshe 911 Turbo would be bearing down on me at 120 mph before I could get around the VW bus. That was a real adventure.

__________________
Bruce

73 220D (never left Germany)
81 300D (totaled)
84 300D (Purchased '03, sold '17)
85 300SD (purchased 10/01/03)

as long as you did the mantanice it can last forever hows 200,000 mile for a gasser and as far as i know my trans is original remember it's a
1973

Hey I road in one of those 4 on the tree taxies in Italy once. I also almost bought one in the early '80's, but bought a used '75 Old's '98 with only 42,000 miles on the clock. Sold it a year later, the wife hated the car because it was so big. Not to mention it was a gas hoggggggggg.

__________________
'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

Tangent,

With all respect, I think that you must be off on a tangent. If you are talking about the original beetle, they were air cooled POS engines. In Germany or in other cooler climates these engines would hold up okay, maybe. In the heat, they wouldn't hold up at all.

200,000 miles on an air cooled 40HP or 52HP air cooled beetle would be about as impossible as anything mechanical could be. If you DID manage to get that mileage from one, it would be with MANY valve adjustments and more than one jug job.

I drove a '68 Beetle 52,000 miles or so in Germany in about 23 months in 1969 to 1971. This was before we had the better oils that we have now days. If you were to try your 200,000 mile test now with modern oil, specifically Mobil One, and if the stars were to perfectly align and you drove it carefully, etc........... You MIGHT be successful, but I would like to place a bet on such a test.

Have a great day,

Yeah those bugs were POS for sure. I worked on one about 20 years ago. I had to change the plugs on the beast. They came out with some of the threads. I still managed to put new plugs in but when I tried starting it, it went bang, bang, bang, bang. All the plugs shot out like missiles. The manager of the shop was standing there watching it all happen. It was the funniest thing he ever saw. I had a good laugh as well.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

R Leo, you have 67hp? Jeepers, I'm jealous. The hydraulic clutch actuator and the gorilla knob are the only things I'd do without. And a column shifter would make daBenz a perfect car.

__________________
daBenz - 1970 220D

Thing One is back in town for the summer and I rode around today with her running errands in the 240D (W115). I don't care what everyone else thinks; I love the gorrila knob, the wind-up windows, the orange paint, the '70 styling and that car's complete and total funkalocity.

Geez, what a terrific car. Sometimes I can't believe it's actually mine.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Dang, if I had known you were going to like it that much, I would have raised the price!

__________________
Palangi

2004 C240 Wagon 203.261 Baby Benz
2008 ML320 CDI Highway Cruiser
2006 Toyota Prius, Saving the Planet @ 48 mpg
2000 F-150, Destroying the Planet @ 20 mpg



TRUMP .......... WHITEHOUSE
HILLARY .........JAILHOUSE
BERNIE .......... NUTHOUSE
0BAMA .......... OUTHOUSE

Yeah, that was a onehelluva great deal....for moi. Face it, you had too many cars anyway.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

uhg no dissrespect but i know of may people that have driven there bug's and other air cooled vw's 100,000- 200'000 mile's easy just ask any body into aircool vw's but people just hear about the bad stuff
the comit about the
sparkplugs from lietuviai if some one pulled them hot more than once they'll strip just like all the alluminom heads i've ever head of

i realy like the 240d my mom has and enjoy working on it but of the 3 cars in my list the bug is runing the best and the 240d not at all if you want proff i'm not full of it check out The complet idiots guid to working on vws and
http://www.geneberg.com/ they build and have hight pro. motors and have been in the biz sence the 50's

Isn't Thing One a him? It certainly looks like a him in the pictures I've seen.

__________________
Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

I am pretty sure that you are right Rick.... Maybe the hyperventilating over the 5 speed caused some temporary memory loss....

Tangent,

I don't, at all, doubt that a bug can be taken to 200,000 miles, but at what cost in time spent on the thing?

Show me a beetle with over 100,000 miles, and I'll show you an engine that has been apart and probably more than once. It also will have had leaking oil cooler, leaking push rod tubes, and MANY valve adjustments.

You can make anything go many miles if you just keep working on it and replacing and rebuilding as needed.

To compare a beetle with 200,000 miles to a Benz diesel with 200,000 miles, you are looking at lots of work done on the beetle and not much more than preventive maintenance on the Benz.

Have YOU ever driven a beetle for any number of miles at all? If so, how many?

Have a great day,