On Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:01 -0800, "CW"
wrote:


"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"Leon" wrote:

"Swingman" wrote in message
...
Leon wrote:
Snip


I bought the VW's on their past reputation.

The "Volkswagen", the original design, is what I was talking about.
Not the price point engineered models they started making to woo
and placate the American consumer with the junk they prefer.

Exactly!



The original VW bug was inexpensive to buy, and relatively inexpensive
to repair. That is hardly the same as being reliable.

However since there was so little to it, it tended to be reliable as
well--there just wan't much on it that could break.


Had two of them while living in Ethiopia. Very reliable. If parts were
needed, you could get them there, unlike most cars. Also, being air cooled,
would not boil over and leave you stranded in the desert, a potentially
deadly situation.


But when the head studs stripped out of the crankcase, letting the
heads sag off both sides, boiling over would have been by far the
lesser of two evils. And that was a VERY common problem, particularly
in warm countries with rough roads. Up to 1300ccs they were pretty
good, but the 1500 and 1600cc engines dropped heads like flies.
My 1949 had the early Kubbelwaggen 1098cc (10 taxable horsepower)
engine. It had over 200,000 miles on it and I believe one valve job.
The newer stuff was not nearly as dependable .