Any air cooled VW guys here?

[SpecialK]

I've got a weird dilemna here. I'm making some slow inroads towards being a legit sax player. What that means is that I have to schlep around four saxophones. The gigs and jams are all over the hill in the bay area. So I'm fucked. At some point here I'll be dicked into getting a car. One of the big reasons I hate cars is that I hate working on cars. The only ones that seem to come close to motorcycle levels of economy and simplicity are the old aircooled VWs.

So here's my question for you: How big is the trunk on a type 1?

The largest case I have is about 42'' x12"x8" the next one down is about 30" long then 24" and 14".

What do you think? Can I get the fleet in there?

[Bigshankhank]

Have you thought about the larger vehicles, type III square backs and such? Much more cargo room, same air cooled engine. I will admit I am a fan (lol) of them but I have never had one. There is an old Meyers Manx kit Type I around the corner that is for sale, but it is far too incomplete for me to consider.

[Pattio]

I grew up in air-cooled VWs, and will always consider myself an air-cooled VW guy, but its been quite some time since I was even in one. Some thoughts about carrying stuff in them: the front trunk area (in the new Teslas they call it the Frunk) is really not very spacious for larger objects, but holds a lot of soft stuff or small objects. I had a couple of Super Beetles, which use a mcpherson strut design and have more space up there than the older kind. As for the rear seating/passenger area, anything will fit there with sufficient will and whimsey. Something about the spunky nature of the car challenges you to fit anything and everything in there. Silly numbers of people, cunningly dissasembled bicycles or small motorbikes, architectural findings and recyclings, it always fit. Making things get in there also makes you understand why hatchbacks became the standard for economy vehicles.

[DerGolgo]

I've never had the opportunity of using one, but I've got a friend who brags how he once moved his entire household to a new apartment with one. He brags, mind, it's not the sort of vehicle that lends itself to such applications, or it wouldn't be brag-worthy.
Have you considered a Type 2? I know the first gen ones, the T1, are rarer than hen's teeth, but the T2 is actually still being manufactured in Brazil as we speak - not with a flat four, but any non-engine related parts should be easy to acquire thus.
Not quite as agile as a Type 1, but that shouldn't be that much of a problem on streets build for American cars, should it? I understand San Francisco isn't quite as automobile friendly as other cities, but people still manage to drive around in you regular yank tanks there, don't they.
Also, the Type 3 is about the only van that is anti-creepy. Might make you look cooky, but not much like a serial killer, would it.

EDIT: I thought they were still using the flat four, but they don't anymore, so I corrected.

[goose]

drop a line for your next gig. sheesh

[xtian]

I was thinking T2 too. Other advantage, if you have to climb a SF hill in it, you'll be so deaf when you reach the top that you have to feel embarrassed by your possible errors when playing.

[SpecialK]

I'll have to find one and check.

I'm cool with the Super Beetle and they definitely tend to go for less money so that might be cool.

I'd consider a squareback, but they seem to be a lot less common and the prices are higher. The prices for vans are absolutely retarded. Around here from what I've seen they start at around $3000 for a complete basket case. Fuck That.

One thing is that my horns are worth more than I'll ever be willing to spend on a car. I'd really like to be able to keep them hidden away in a trunk. If someone decided to pull a smash and grab with my bari in the backseat I'd be fucked. A brand new one is around $10,000.

After getting deep on craigslist last night I came up with a rather surprising (to me) alternative. The cheapest thing with the best reputation for reliability and the biggest trunk? A Crown Victoria P71 Police Interceptor. They start at less than $2000 for a beater and go up to about $4000 for a nice clean car. Everyone claims that theirs will pass SMOG. I've never imagined myself driving such a pig, and I hate to imagine working on it. On the other hand there's a strange attraction...

[DerGolgo]

After getting deep on craigslist last night I came up with a rather surprising (to me) alternative. The cheapest thing with the best reputation for reliability and the biggest trunk? A Crown Victoria P71 Police Interceptor. They start at less than $2000 for a beater and go up to about $4000 for a nice clean car. Everyone claims that theirs will pass SMOG. I've never imagined myself driving such a pig, and I hate to imagine working on it. On the other hand there's a strange attraction...

Make sure the cigarette lighter is busted and you'll be fine

Regarding what you mention about theft of your instrument ... I know it's a boring idea, but perhaps some car an insurer would approve of, so you can insure it against theft?

[Pattio]

1) I love the crown vic idea, 2) considering how stoopid expensive car ownership is in the bay area, and the costs of getting a car on the road (insurance, etc), if you really only need the vehicle for certain pre-planned occasions, its possible that an overnight rental could end up being cheaper. I see 'zip cars' every day, and when I see someone driving one I kind of envy them that they get to return the car and walk away when their errands are done.

[DerGolgo]

That is a good idea - in the major cities over here, "car sharing" services get ever more popular. Perhaps there is something like that in the Bay area? You wouldn't have to work on it, so you could enjoy a modern car without the grief.

[12ci]

i'd possibly still be driving air-cooled Beetles if i hadn't become a parent, and thus needed a car with seat belts....

i don't think your big case would fit very well in the trunk of a beetle, much less the "other" type 1, a Ghia. The front trunk on type 3's (squareback, fastback or the rare-in-US notchback) and type 4's (411/412) is comparatively spacious; that 42" case should fit.

around here, car insurance only covers the vehicle; any contents would most likely be covered under your homeowners or renters insurance.


that zipcar is sounding better all the time.

[SpecialK]

I see where you guys are going with the zip car thing. Unfortunately I don't actually live in the bay area. I live in a suburb of the nearest beach town to the suburbs of the bay area. Doesn't sound very cool when you say it that way, but it's actually quite nice. So we don't have any zip car outposts here. We also don't have all of the theft, parking, insurance, accident, and vandalism issues of the bay so it's not all bad. Needless to say if I lived in S.F. I wouldn't be considering a car. In fact I have one of these:

worksman-front-loader-360x240.jpg

and it gets me and the fleet around town just fine.
In order to get myself out there and meet people so I can start trying to get gigs I need to be going to blues jams that happen in various places, mostly in the east bay, about four nights a week. These are all medium range plans. At the moment I have no idea how I'm going to go about paying for a car. Right now I'm living hand to mouth and trying to work as little as humanly as possible so that I can get enough practicing in to actually get good. The other day it sank in to me what I'll need to do so I'm starting to try and plan ahead for it.

[DerGolgo]

It surprises me that no one has thought about it thus far.
But if you can raise the money ... a motorcycle with a cargo sidecar? That is, with just a big box bolted to where the boat usually goes? You could secure it with the hugest padlocks, probably making it slightly more secure than even a car, and the whole thing getting stolen isn't entirely likely, as it'd be difficult to fit it on a truck and sidecars are a bit rare these days, so not many people would actually want to steal it, I think.
Like this on advrider:

Heck, you could outfit a cheap and cheerful scooter as such (though how that would work in SF hills is another question).


Just a silly idea to keep in mind, mind, pretty pointless if cash is a problem, I know. But I felt it necessary to mention, just so that it would have been mentioned, for completeness' sake.

[Rabbit_Fighter]

How much gear do you have to carry? Locking trunk on the bike an option?

I had a '72 Superbeetle for a couple years and it was a lot of fun. Cheap and reliable, but I sincerely felt safer and more comfortable riding my V-Strom in the rain and cold. Highway driving is not that much fun either.

70s-80s V8 cars can be picked up for very cheap and I have had my share ('77 Chyrsler LeBaron with 318, '77 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with Chev 350, '85 Crown Vic with 5.0). Those cars are such wonderful road-trip machines, but the fuel economy is terrible. If you drive them any amount of miles/month, you will save money by financing an economy car.

[SpecialK]

Yeah, I'm well outside of locking trunk range.
A sidecar was actually my first thought, but they're hard to find and expensive. I'd really much prefer one over a car though and it would allow me to keep my current class M only license. It was hard to talk the DMV lady into giving me that thing and I'm inordinantly proud of it. If I can find one in my price range I'll definitely do that.

I have this little trailer that I've been hanging on to as well. I might be able to put a box on it and jank up some sort of tow hitch. Somehow this seems like a pretty sketchy option though. I'm not sure how a bike with a trailer handles at cali freeway speeds. Plus my tow vehicles would be either a 250 Ninja or a DR350 which aren't the greatest options.

The thing with older cars is that I live in Kalifornia and SMOG tests are a bitch. Pre 1975 cars carry pretty high values because they don't need to be tested. It's one of the reasons that the VWs cost as much as they do. A late '70s or '80s car is pretty tough to get through emissions testing. By the time you get to '90s cars we're back to the p71 Crown Vic.

Now that I think about it the trailer might be an alright option. I could probably flip the two little bikes and turn them into something with a higher tow rating. The nice thing there is that when I'm not using the trailer I don't have to deal with three wheels of weirdness.

[SpecialK]

God I'm an idiot.
The trailer's freaking perfect! My biggest case fits on there perfectly. The trailer's all aluminum and my horns aren't really all that heavy.The all up weight is probably less than a passenger. I have an unregisterable DR frame and some scrap steel sitting in the yard. My roomate has a welder.
I can't believe I talked myself all the way into considering a mammoth like a crown vic when the simple, cheap, elegant solution was right there the whole time.

[Rabbit_Fighter]

I would think a DR350 would pull reasonably well. They aren't really fast, but pretty good torque.

[SpecialK]

Yeah, The DR should be torquey enough to pull a light load at moderate speeds just fine. The thing is that it doesn't really have what I like to call "brakes". The first time I put a passenger on there it was an eye opening, sphincter closing experience. It'll probably be fine with a little caution though.