1972 Volkswagen Beetle 1300 review from UK and Ireland

Fan Belt snapped at 140,000.

That's it!

Classic air cooled fun.

Slow.

Noisy.

Uncomfortable.

Cold in the winter.

But really, who cares, you get that one day in the summer when the whole thing makes sense, Windows down trundling around, feeling very special.

I will give you an example, I popped to the shop to buy some milk last summer, at the shop I saw a couple of my friends talking so I parked up next to them to have a chat, not one person passed comment on their vehicles (Mercedes CLK Kompressor and Jaguar X type) But, children pointed and stared, teenagers pointed and wanted to lower it!, older people wanted to talk to me about the beetle that they used to run which never let them down, Fantastic!

Talking of never letting you down, you will notice that I have been fairly harsh on this car as far as comfort and performance goes, It does however get full marks for reliability. Again I will illustrate this with an example, Last October (2003) I parked the car in my garden and left it. Last weekend (March 2004) I needed to move it, so I retired to the shed to get a battery charger. For a laugh I thought I would try to start it before charging the battery, to my surprise the thing turned over, and on the third attempt burst into life! Five months of neglect just shrugged off amazing.