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A look at the history, evolution and cultural significance of the VW Bus
这是一个关于某款车型如何成为标志性经典的非凡故事, 标志性且备受喜爱的车辆
这是一个关于某款车型如何成为标志性经典的非凡故事, 标志性且备受喜爱的车辆
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00:03:22It's sort of like an amusement park ride for adults
00:03:25and you get to control where you go.
00:03:27The Volkswagen bus is a cultural icon.
00:03:30It represented a very powerful set of ideas
00:03:34and a powerful set of experiences
00:03:36at a very turbulent time in history.
00:03:40So it was in the right place at the right time.
00:03:42No matter what bus we drive, it's, you know, automatically,
00:03:46oh, you drive one of those hippie cars.
00:03:52This was a well-designed, well-built, easy-to-work-on vehicle.
00:03:57I mean, it's a farm tractor, the way it's designed.
00:04:01But looks hella cute and has a lot of style.
00:04:05Magic bus!
00:04:06I'm watching!
00:04:07I'm watching!
00:04:09I'm watching!
00:04:10I'm watching!
00:04:10I'm watching!
00:04:10I'm watching!
00:04:10Every day you'll see the dust!
00:04:13You're my magic bus!
00:04:36The history of the VW bus goes back to the Nazis,
00:04:39interestingly enough, because Ferdinand Porsche, the same guy,
00:04:44you know, namesake for the Porsche car these days,
00:04:48he was contracted by the Nazi government in the 30s
00:04:52to develop an inexpensive car for the German masses.
00:04:58After the war, the allies who were occupying Germany,
00:05:03they got the factory started again.
00:05:07In Germany, most of the railroads were not working
00:05:11because after the war, everything was broken.
00:05:13And so there was a big need for transportation.
00:05:17When the British took over Volkswagen after World War II
00:05:20and decided to try to make it work, you know,
00:05:24to get the factory going, you know, bring it up out of the ashes,
00:05:28some of the workers, in an effort to make it easier
00:05:31to get parts from one end of the factory or the other,
00:05:34rigged up the VW Beetle frame
00:05:37and had the whole front of the thing set up as a platform
00:05:40so they could pile stuff on it and then ferry things around.
00:05:44And there was a guy named Ben Pon, who was a Dutch VW dealer,
00:05:48who, when he visited the factory, he saw this and he said,
00:05:52hey, that would be a great thing to make a van out of.
00:05:56In 1947, Ben Pon, he was the first guy
00:05:59who was allowed to sell VWs to the public.
00:06:02He was in the VW factory and he saw these guys driving around
00:06:07in these kind of cars and he said, this is kind of stupid.
00:06:11You have to put the driver's seat in front of the car
00:06:14and not behind the car.
00:06:16And then he took his notebook and he made a drawing.
00:06:20And this drawing is well-known throughout the buses family
00:06:24because this was the start and the beginning of building buses.
00:06:36This is Ben Pon, Sr.
00:06:40And that's the old man.
00:06:43That was painted by a friend of his.
00:06:4958.
00:06:52That's the drawing.
00:06:56You see the wheels, 750 kilos.
00:07:00Engine.
00:07:03Cabin.
00:07:04Steering wheel.
00:07:05After the water was not much left, right?
00:07:08So he thought a little transport was a future.
00:07:12It was a big market.
00:07:15and he was right.
00:07:50And there were so many of them around that everybody's got a Volkswagen bus story, whether
00:07:54they've owned one or not, or ridden in their friend's bus.
00:07:57It doesn't matter where you go, I've been all over Europe in this van.
00:08:01I went down to Barcelona last summer and I took my family on holiday with a roof tent.
00:08:06And the people that come up to you and just want to talk about it, it's amazing, you know.
00:08:11And there's so many situations where you get to meet people where you wouldn't if you
00:08:15were in any other vehicle, you know.
00:08:17To me it's about the people, you know, and the vibe that is created from these vehicles.
00:08:21What other car can you drive to work and have ten people smile and wave to you as you drive
00:08:25by?
00:08:26I'm not sure, but I'm guessing they're not doing that to the PT crews that they just
00:08:30drove by or to the Chevy pickup.
00:08:33You know, they wave, they stop.
00:08:34Even this morning just driving down here, we're sitting in a traffic jam in London and some
00:08:38guys walking past, stop, take photos just at the side of the street, you know.
00:08:41But that's what it's like here, it's crazy.
00:08:43People love a camper van.
00:08:45Whether it be traffic on your side of the highway or the other side, you can just feel
00:08:48people looking constantly.
00:08:50We've been in town in the west end of London with all our Cool Flow buses and we have stopped
00:08:57traffic on the busiest junctions, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street.
00:09:01People have been jumping in the road taking pictures.
00:09:03It's just massively iconic and it's that smiley face in the front of a split.
00:09:08It's just a complete head turner.
00:09:10Everybody's got some story they want to tell you.
00:09:12You're making instant friends no matter where you go, it's really kind of nice.
00:09:15If you're not a friendly sort, it's going to be a bother.
00:09:19After a while, you know, you can become jaded to people good-heartedly walking up to you
00:09:25and wanting to tell you their Volkswagen stories and this and that.
00:09:27So we came up with a menu plan, which is going to be as soon as somebody walks up and
00:09:31have
00:09:32that look of anticipation in their eye, just hand on the menu.
00:09:34And the menu says, if you would like to tell us a story about how you used to have a
00:09:39bus
00:09:39just like this, that'll cost you $5.
00:09:42If you'd like to tell us a story about how your parents had a bus like this and you grew
00:09:45up and had to be under blankets in the wintertime because the heater didn't work, blah, blah,
00:09:50blah.
00:09:50$10.
00:09:51You've got to give us $10 to put up with that.
00:09:54If you want to tell me which way I should paint my bus, that's $20.
00:09:58I'm really tired of hearing how I should paint my bus because if I wanted to paint it that
00:10:01way, I would have already done it.
00:10:04So that's our menu idea when we're feeling jaded, but most of the time, you know, we're
00:10:07always happy to talk to people and tell, you know, it's 65, it's a sundial, it's got this,
00:10:12it was originally a panel van, it's got this many miles, and yes, I adjust the valves.
00:10:17You would never hear a story from anybody about going on a trip and experiencing a breakdown
00:10:25and have that spun into a positive experience.
00:10:28Push!
00:10:29Push!
00:10:31Okay.
00:10:33Okay.
00:10:34Okay.
00:10:36Come on, honey.
00:10:37I'm putting it in gear.
00:10:39No, honey.
00:10:40Come on.
00:10:40Come on, Lala, come on.
00:10:42Halfway there, we broke down and we had to spend three days in this little hick town with,
00:10:46you know, one garage.
00:10:48They had to, you know, we had to wait for the part to come and we got to know these
00:10:52people.
00:10:52You know, we stayed in this little motel and ate in this little bar.
00:10:56And even if the trip was uneventful, people remember going places in these things.
00:11:01It's fantastic.
00:11:02You don't get that from people who are behind the wheel of a, you know, a Honda Odyssey.
00:11:07If the thing breaks down, chances are they're going to just ditch it and get a rental car
00:11:12and keep going.
00:11:12They're not going to stick around.
00:11:14But when you're traveling in a van again with a pop top and all your food and your clothes
00:11:18and your kids and everything you own is in it, you just can't part with that.
00:11:21You've got to figure out a way to fix it and you've got to figure out a way to keep
00:11:23going.
00:11:24And that's where this passion comes from.
00:11:50I think that's caused some sort of issue.
00:11:56They were designed back when they actually designed things, whether it was stylistically or mechanically.
00:12:02And you can work on them.
00:12:03I busted a valve once near Moab, Utah, and I drove on three cylinders all the way to Colorado,
00:12:09found a buddy's shop, and we pulled the engine and stripped it all the way down to the short block
00:12:15and put it all back together and reinstalled it in time to go out to dinner that night.
00:12:22I'm in the perfect vehicle.
00:12:24Mine's my off-road vehicle, my race car, my work vehicle, my show car.
00:12:29It does all the different functions I need.
00:12:40I haven't owned anything other than air-cooled Volkswagens ever, really.
00:12:45So I guess for me it's a lifestyle by default with nothing else.
00:12:51So this is our deluxe chicken coop here.
00:12:55With all the buses I've found over the years that were turned into chicken coops,
00:12:58I never thought I'd make one myself.
00:13:00And it sort of goes well with our garden shed.
00:13:02There they are.
00:13:03What's up with you making chicken?
00:13:05Chicken on the diving board.
00:13:06As far as the bus culture and stuff, I mean, I'm in a strange subset of a subset of bus
00:13:11guys.
00:13:12I mean, the Shasta guys are the weirdest of the weird bus guys.
00:13:15They're the ones that even the bus people look at.
00:13:16It's quite strange.
00:13:26The Shasta snow trip for the first few years, it was a small group of guys picked a route
00:13:31to Mount Shasta on Groundhog's Day and had a blast.
00:13:35It was 420 miles in one day.
00:13:39And, I mean, you start out at 4 a.m.
00:13:42And we've had times when we've pulled into Shasta at 6 a.m.
00:13:45So we've driven 26 hours straight.
00:13:47The point was to show what you could do in a Volkswagen bus.
00:13:52I mean, to show that you don't have to have a 4x4 to go out and go off-road.
00:13:57And that if you prepare and have a good knowledge of your bus, that you can get through adverse conditions
00:14:03and make it.
00:14:04So this is a rusty bus.
00:14:06It's my Shasta rig.
00:14:08Put over 200,000 miles on it.
00:14:10Headed over 100 miles per hour a couple of times.
00:14:13Jumped it and slid 180s in it.
00:14:17Carried 3,500 pounds of rocks in it once.
00:14:19I've just tried buses halfway across the country with it before.
00:14:22Definitely got my $125 worth out of it.
00:14:41Daddy and Mommy said this was going to be my bus.
00:14:45And this is the bus.
00:14:47We got married in the back of his double cab.
00:14:51Our vows were read out of a workshop manual.
00:14:55Our preacher was bus club member number two.
00:15:00And we have our VW rings.
00:15:03The rest is history.
00:15:04She was cute.
00:15:05She was smart.
00:15:06She can weld.
00:15:07She can sew.
00:15:08She can build an engine.
00:15:10And she can fix a reduction box overnight.
00:15:12I mean, by scrounging parts and building tools.
00:15:16If I remember correctly, I think I proposed to her the first day.
00:15:19It's just hard to find a good bus girl.
00:15:22If your TV set broke down right now, could your wife find something to talk about?
00:15:27Is she the kind of wife that can bake her own bread?
00:15:31Does she worry about the arms race?
00:15:34Do the neighbors' kids wish they had her for a mother?
00:15:38Will your wife say yes to a camping trip after 50 straight weeks of cooking?
00:15:45Will she let your daughter keep a pet snake in the backyard?
00:15:49Can you show up very late for dinner without calling first?
00:15:53With two old friends?
00:15:56Will your wife let the kids eat frankfurters for breakfast?
00:15:59Would she name a cat Rover?
00:16:02Would she let you give up your job with a smile and mean it?
00:16:06Congratulations.
00:16:07You have the right kind of life for the Volkswagen station wagon.
00:16:13When the bus came to town in the late 50s,
00:16:16it was totally different than all these American cars,
00:16:19which were heavier, had worse gas mileage,
00:16:23focused on glamour and size and power and showing off.
00:16:29And the whole point was to show that you were wealthy.
00:16:34The bus and the Beetle exuded a whole different sort of vibe,
00:16:38and they were based on a whole different concept.
00:16:42Volkswagen was actually forward thinking in going with a relatively small,
00:16:48unknown advertising company called Doyle Dane Bernbach.
00:16:52The advertising campaign that they started with Volkswagen
00:16:55helped make them into a very well-known and, you know,
00:16:59one of the most well-respected advertising agencies.
00:17:02I mean, you know, there were dozens and dozens of these ads that came out
00:17:05all through the 60s and 70s.
00:17:07So basically, the strategy was, we know this car is weird,
00:17:10so rather than trying to pretend that it's not weird
00:17:12and try and fit it into sort of the box of American cars,
00:17:15because it just isn't, why don't we play up that weirdness
00:17:20and use it as an asset and sort of turn that on its head?
00:17:25The Volkswagen station wagon is big enough to seat nine comfortably.
00:17:29However, in a pinch you can do much better.
00:17:32In fact, it can hold things ordinary station wagons wouldn't even consider.
00:17:36A drink.
00:17:46Think Japan needs to be delivered from my friends.
00:18:06How is it?
00:18:06This time you get the report of�長?
00:18:06Yeah, and as soon as every word about this house,
00:18:15As we promised you, Dave Manning is in the house.
00:18:18He is a musician and entertainer.
00:18:19You are amazing.
00:18:21I appreciate that.
00:18:21Vincent is also just about as popular as you, and that's your Volkswagen.
00:18:25Yes, yeah.
00:18:26Yeah, I drive this old Volkswagen hippie bus.
00:18:28It's a 65-year model.
00:18:30How many miles on Vincent, do you know?
00:18:32There is around 360,000 miles on it.
00:18:35Oh, heavens.
00:18:36Dave, today you're playing for us what tune?
00:18:40Well, I'm going to play one called Vincent Rolls, which is actually about the bus.
00:18:45Is it on here?
00:18:46It's on my second CD.
00:18:48Oh, I'm holding the first one.
00:18:49Yeah, I slipped you a mickey there.
00:18:51Okay, that's the first one we're looking at.
00:18:53Okay, Vincent Rolls?
00:18:54Yes.
00:18:55Okay, it's all yours.
00:18:59Yes, as Lou mentioned, the bus is called Vincent.
00:19:04I bought it when I was 17 years old.
00:19:06I've been driving it for 20 years.
00:19:09Taught me a lot of things.
00:19:12One of which is you meet the best people when you're broken down.
00:19:16Because the jerks don't stop.
00:19:35I gave it on dollars to a man who's in a four-pick-up truck.
00:19:41Gave me the keys and a handshake.
00:19:44And he wished me luck.
00:19:47Said don't drive it further than you want.
00:19:50So at home.
00:20:00Yeah, over to the Cutthroat Saloon, if you could.
00:20:04Hey, good afternoon.
00:20:06I was calling to try and find out who's in charge of booking the live music there.
00:20:12Right on.
00:20:12And you get solo acts in there?
00:20:17Okay, cool.
00:20:18I'll give her a call and see if I can sell around the idea of getting me in there in
00:20:21July
00:20:21when I'm coming through.
00:20:28I drive around and play music in bars and casinos or wherever will hire me.
00:20:34From Alaska to Mexico and back.
00:20:37And most of the time, live in the bus.
00:20:40When I'm lucky, live in some beautiful, scenic place.
00:20:43And when I need to, I've got my bedroom right behind the bar.
00:20:47Which is pretty convenient.
00:20:48I play the piano.
00:20:50I do a lot of piano blues, boogie woogie.
00:20:52A lot of my own stuff falls in those categories.
00:20:55Kind of the older rock and roll sort of sound.
00:20:57Yeah.
00:20:58Maybe even honky tonk.
00:21:13The tour bus.
00:21:14Yeah.
00:21:15Well, I inadvertently bought what has become, like, the quintessential road trip romanticized vehicle.
00:21:22I think over the past 20 years, this particular style, like the old split window bus, represents
00:21:26the 60s.
00:21:27It represents, like, the free love, you know, hippie lifestyle.
00:21:38When you think about hippies, you think about the VW bus, which encapsulates, you know, all these broader concepts
00:21:45about hippies and drugs and freedom and youth and revolution and the 60s, you know, prioritizing
00:21:53sort of self-discovery and exploration, not wedded to one place.
00:21:59And all of that is sort of tied up with this idea of rejecting 1950s materialism.
00:22:05There we were in the 50s, being told all this stuff that turned out to be crap.
00:22:11And so suddenly, you left home to find your own way in the world.
00:22:15It was a big deal, you know, in the 60s when that kind of social revolution came along.
00:22:21And these buses were used by a lot of the people.
00:22:23They were cheap.
00:22:25They could haul a lot of stuff.
00:22:27You know, you could draw the curtains and hang out and do, you know, smoke through dope or whatever
00:22:31and theoretically not get caught.
00:22:34We were all a bunch of old hippies.
00:22:38That's what we were.
00:22:39Every hippie in the world at that time, it was almost mandatory to have a Volkswagen or a Volkswagen bus.
00:22:46We'd take off for a couple, three months in the wintertime and go surfing or go do this or go
00:22:51do whatever.
00:22:52And that whole culture was originally steeped in love.
00:22:56It became steeped in a lot of other things later on.
00:23:11The whole idea was to feed the world with love.
00:23:15It was neat.
00:23:16I mean, I was really older than most of the hippies.
00:23:19And so I thought, wow, this is great, you know, this is going to change the world.
00:23:25But it didn't.
00:23:27It didn't.
00:23:43The bus, in real life, it was used by hippies.
00:23:46And over time, it became sort of stereotypically associated with hippies to an even greater degree.
00:23:52Do you tie it in a ribbon?
00:23:54Do you tie it in a bow?
00:23:55Do you wear it over your shoulder like a continental soldier?
00:23:58Does your hair hang low?
00:24:06It's a conspiracy, man.
00:24:08The oil company's got a grip on the government.
00:24:11They're feeding us a bunch of lies, man.
00:24:14So where did the bus go after Woodstock, after 1970?
00:24:20And where did sort of the hippie culture go after that?
00:24:23I mean, when we talk about, you know, the carry-on to the hippie culture,
00:24:28the best place that it was sort of recreated over time through the 70s,
00:24:34through the 80s, through the 90s, was through The Grateful Dead.
00:24:39As I was walking around going to scratch
00:24:45Not a chill to the winter but a dip to the air
00:24:48You know, here was this iconic, you know, hugely popular rock and roll band
00:24:53that traveled all the time and toured all the time all over the country.
00:25:01They were there way back in the beginning in the Haight-Ashbury, you know,
00:25:05they were on the forefront of this sort of psychedelic culture,
00:25:09hippie culture, you know, drug culture.
00:25:13Through their touring, they created a cultural space in which people could,
00:25:20you know, be young, do drugs, have their buses, you know,
00:25:24it was all tied up in that.
00:25:30This is an advertisement that is from Rolling Stone magazine from 1995.
00:25:37This is an official Volkswagen advertisement from the Volkswagen Corporation.
00:25:43It says, Jerry Garcia, 1942 to 1995.
00:25:47This was in the issue, came out right after Jerry died.
00:25:50And this shows a drawing of a first-generation microbus crying.
00:25:55And what's remarkable about this advertisement is this is an explicit acknowledgement
00:26:01by a car manufacturing company, you know, a huge automobile company,
00:26:07acknowledging their link to a specific individual tied to the American counterculture.
00:26:13You know, on the one hand, Volkswagen was looking to sell cars.
00:26:17On the other hand, they really did appreciate the differentness of their car,
00:26:21and they believed in the car.
00:26:23And I think they were genuinely grateful, you know, and appreciative of the fact
00:26:29that you had this strong identity that grew up around their car.
00:26:47Other subcultures also grabbed ahold of these buses as part of their thing.
00:27:12The quintessential pre-hippie surfer vehicle was a Volkswagen bus with a surfboard hanging out the back.
00:27:19And that was the car.
00:27:26Surfers are kind of real individualistic.
00:27:29And so, you've got my car, my home, my whole thing is right here.
00:27:33And if I don't like it here, I'll go there.
00:27:36And, you know, when you're on a surf trip, the ability to move up and down the coast at will
00:27:41is a big deal.
00:27:42Because, you know, if the surf's not good here, go three miles up this way, it might be great.
00:27:53And then I don't want to get into it.
00:28:20In 1986, 85 worldwide, but 86 for the United States, Volkswagen introduced the all-wheel drive Vanagon.
00:28:28Any one of us who's ever had any adventures going off-road with their buses, it's like being in doggy
00:28:35heaven.
00:28:36To get behind the wheel of a synchro, it's a phenomenon. It was a hippie engineer bus wet dream.
00:28:44There's only one way to improve upon the Vanagon. Use a Volkswagen exclusive. Synchro four-wheel drive technology. Synchro is
00:28:53not just four-wheel drive, it's better. Synchro four-wheel drive, the perfect addition to the already versatile Vanagon.
00:29:01I just purchased a new 20-year-old car. It's a Volkswagen Synchro, it's a four-wheel drive bus, that
00:29:09they made very few of them for some reason, and they rarely come up for sale because the people who
00:29:15buy them really love them.
00:29:16So one came up and I leapt upon it. This was the ugly face of the Starship Enterprise. Kind of
00:29:21looks like the shuttlecraft.
00:29:22But a car to have, nonetheless.
00:29:27If you suffer from a rare dementia like I do, it is the car to have. And I had this
00:29:33baby tricked out from soup to nuts. From wigs to car keys, this thing was redone for me.
00:29:38These vehicles are every bit as capable as a properly equipped jeep or land cruiser.
00:29:45You can take a bone stock Synchro right out of the box, just factory Synchro, and you can take them
00:29:51pretty much anywhere.
00:30:10Let's do this.
00:30:12Let's do this.
00:30:38It was the ultimate last hurrah of the microbus.
00:30:42When I was 20, I would do things in my bus
00:30:44that I would never recommend anybody try to do.
00:30:47It's Nirvana.
00:30:48They do things that only Jeeps are classically known to do.
00:30:53But then you stop on the top of that hill you made it to,
00:30:56and you pop your top, you got your ice-cold beers in your fridge,
00:30:59and everyone's just green with envy.
00:31:15This is Walter, and what you're seeing right now
00:31:18is a skinned version of this original fire truck.
00:31:22He is two to one scale, so Archimedes was the first one
00:31:26who realized that for similar shaped objects,
00:31:29small one and then a large one,
00:31:31you need to take the cube of that scale
00:31:34in order to determine the volume.
00:31:37So Walter, even though he's only two to one scale,
00:31:39he's eight times the volume of a normal bus.
00:31:44330-gallon water tank runs an onboard misting system
00:31:47because Walter was created to go to Burning Man
00:31:49where it's super hot and super dry.
00:31:54I was way out on the playa
00:31:55where you're away from where the city of Burning Man is
00:31:58where there's just nothing.
00:31:59And it was at night, it was dark,
00:32:01probably had a few drinks in me,
00:32:02and I see this Volkswagen bus.
00:32:04You know, I recognize the way the headlights work.
00:32:06It keeps getting closer and closer,
00:32:07and then finally I saw a person standing next to it.
00:32:10And I'm just like, that thing's the wrong size.
00:32:26Dozens of artisans who have taken on some aspect of it,
00:32:30mostly with free rein in terms of do what you think is right.
00:32:34And so, probably why it's as cool as it is
00:32:39is because so many people just poured their creative energy into it.
00:32:43And in my mind,
00:32:44it's kind of become community property because of that.
00:32:50Everybody loves him.
00:32:52You basically become this little kid.
00:32:58On the most sort of emotional level,
00:33:02it is freedom.
00:33:03And he represents that for me,
00:33:05despite his enormous size.
00:33:08You know, it's like the ability to go somewhere
00:33:10and not be constrained by houses and towns
00:33:14and rules and things like that.
00:33:17And I think that that was really the bus.
00:33:19The bus gave, you know, a generation the ability
00:33:22to hit the road and to do it really well.
00:33:26Walter is proof that if you think of something,
00:33:30even if it's sort of crazy,
00:33:32that it can be done.
00:33:34That it really can.
00:33:49I am in absolute sticker shock right now.
00:33:53Could we be looking at a $200,000 VW bus?
00:33:57Wouldn't that be something?
00:34:00I think we're pretty close to 100 times
00:34:02the original sale price of this.
00:34:11These are not hippie vans anymore
00:34:13because they're too expensive.
00:34:15And that, honestly, that breaks my heart.
00:34:18There's so many people wanting so many early buses
00:34:20that it's just pushed the price through the roof.
00:34:22You know, there was a time when you'd buy a bus
00:34:23for six, seven hundred pounds,
00:34:24whereas now you can't find a bus under six, seven thousand pounds.
00:34:27Split screen.
00:34:29Bay window price buses have gone through the roof.
00:34:31A good bay will cost you 25,000 pounds,
00:34:34which is insane.
00:34:35With the exception of Europe and America
00:34:38and maybe some other cultures around the world,
00:34:41the bus really isn't viewed in this romantic light
00:34:43like we see it.
00:34:44I mean, they were designed to be people movers,
00:34:46cargo movers,
00:34:47and you still see that in third world countries.
00:34:50It's so versatile.
00:34:52You can carry a hundred chickens in it
00:34:54or eight people
00:34:56or ten people.
00:34:58You can do stuff with it.
00:34:59You can get needs met.
00:35:00Go away!
00:35:16Follow me!
00:35:39Okay
00:35:54There are four people here and there, and here, four people.
00:36:47There are four people here and there, and here, four people.
00:37:06Just the way things are set up is just really unique and really cute.
00:37:11Especially in the split window, the dashboard is really cute, kind of looks like a jukebox
00:37:14almost.
00:37:15It's kind of bent and got little slots in it.
00:37:16And the pedals, like your brake pedal and your clutch pedal, are attached to the strange.
00:37:20They look like a little mushroom growing out of the floor.
00:37:23Like no American car has that sort of thing going on.
00:37:26I've got friends that have like four-year-old kids, and they're like, you've got a sink
00:37:29in your car!
00:37:30There's a sink!
00:37:31There's water in your car!
00:37:33And they just love pumping the sink.
00:37:34They've seen the water come out, and then they pull the plug and watch the water come out
00:37:37on the ground, you know?
00:37:37A lot of people focus on the front end of the bus, but I'm kind of an ass man.
00:37:41And I just love the rear end of a bus.
00:37:43And the earlier, the 61s and earlier, they just have the best ass of any bus I've ever
00:37:48seen.
00:37:49The small glass tail lights, the perfect curvature to the rear corners, and then you get in the
00:37:55press bumpers.
00:37:56It's just beautiful.
00:37:57It's a beautiful piece of work.
00:37:59And then as the years go on, the ass naturally gets bigger and bigger, as it does with time,
00:38:04and hence the fat chick phenomena of the bay windows and into the square corners of the
00:38:10Vanigans.
00:38:12They all have their attractive points, but there's just nothing sexier than a split-window
00:38:17bus.
00:38:17They look at them, they have a couple of faces, you know?
00:38:22Of course, this one doesn't have the emblem, but when you get the emblem on there, it's
00:38:26got a little nose and eyes and, you know, the smile bumper and little eyebrows and stuff,
00:38:34you know?
00:38:34Kind of an innate character that's almost human, many human qualities, which include failures.
00:38:46Click and clack.
00:38:46In fact, the Tappet brothers, they labeled it one of the 10 worst cars of all time, focusing
00:38:52on the downside, you know, the fact that they did sometimes have problems.
00:39:04Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack, the
00:39:07Tappet brothers here at Car Talk Plaza.
00:39:09888-CAR-TALK, that's 888-227-8255.
00:39:14Hello, you're on Car Talk.
00:39:15Guys, I've got a problem.
00:39:17I have a 79 VW van that likes to catch a fire on the left-hand side of the van,
00:39:22of the engine.
00:39:23Oh, yeah?
00:39:25Well, maybe when your father bought this car new, did he get the excitement package?
00:39:29Well, no.
00:39:31VW has that, you know, because people have accused VW vehicles of being boring.
00:39:36Well, this is my third one, I love.
00:39:38This is the scenario, you're driving along, somebody's behind you?
00:39:40Yes, totally, it's the first time.
00:39:41They see the flames shooting out of the...
00:39:43Well, well, you can see it down low by the wheel.
00:39:46Did you attend the Mickey Mouse School of Technology?
00:39:52I mean, Herb, come on!
00:39:54This is dangerous!
00:40:25It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, you know, to put your body way up in the front of
00:40:30a vehicle that's going to be traveling 65 miles an hour down the road, you know, because in a front
00:40:35-end crash, it's not going to be a pretty picture.
00:40:40We weren't thinking about that. We were just thinking about how to get the stuff in, you know, and where
00:40:44to put the people.
00:40:45And the other thing that is inherently not as safe about a rear engine vehicle is that the mass of
00:40:53the power plant is behind you.
00:40:55So when you hit anything, the crumple zone between you and whatever you hit has to absorb the mass of
00:41:00the vehicle, of you, and of all the drive train that comes behind it.
00:41:05When you move the power plant to in front of the occupants, whatever you hit, the kinetic energy of the
00:41:11power plant, which is moving, is absorbed by whatever you hit,
00:41:15as opposed to having to come through you. So I think the saving grace is they sit so high that
00:41:21they'll just go right over the top of the bumper of a Nissan or a Volvo.
00:41:24The Volvo's reinforced bumper area is of no use because it slides underneath the Vanagon, and the Vanagon takes out
00:41:31the softer part of the vehicle.
00:41:33Because of economic and safety necessities, it had to die.
00:41:37Take care.
00:41:40Take care.
00:41:41Bye-bye.
00:41:41Bye.
00:41:50Bye-bye.
00:41:52Bye-bye.
00:41:55Bye-bye.
00:44:24And we're making a tape today, when I say we, I really mean we, to show you about this book
00:44:40and some of the things that are in it.
00:44:43This is a book called How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive.
00:44:47It has nothing to do with playing the guitar and singing, but it does have to do with a
00:44:53bunch of step by step procedures for the complete idiot.
00:44:58It's written in a very unique style.
00:45:02It's written in a very homey, folksy sort of a style in a kind of a way that's very easy
00:45:08to understand.
00:45:09So, the whole premise was, for somebody who didn't know anything, who had perhaps never
00:45:14even picked up a tool before, they could go through this and actually fix the car and perhaps
00:45:21even enjoy it.
00:45:22What John would have said probably is that it filled a gap.
00:45:27He was always into filling a void.
00:45:29It wasn't anything like that.
00:45:31I mean, you could get an auto manual, but you couldn't do anything with it.
00:45:36But it's kind of like the Chinese instructions for your computer, you know?
00:45:42And along the way, he threw in sort of philosophical musings that were consistent with that hippie
00:45:48philosophy.
00:45:49But yeah, there's so many great quotes in here, like, you know, of course, the,
00:45:52be on kindly terms with your ass, for it bears you.
00:45:55The ass as in a donkey.
00:45:58The car is what carries you.
00:46:00The ass is what carries you.
00:46:01But it was obviously a very philosophical thing because it didn't just refer to the car.
00:46:05It meant to, I think it refers to everything we do.
00:46:09We need to come to terms with everything we do because that's what carries us through life.
00:46:16John was one of those bigger than life characters that if you weren't in his presence and you
00:46:22heard some of his stories, you'd say, this guy's the biggest liar I've ever met in my life.
00:46:26But if you were in his presence, you know that he wasn't a liar.
00:46:29He just, he led an incredibly interesting life.
00:46:33I mean, very, very unusual.
00:46:35John asked me to marry him.
00:46:38And I didn't want to marry anybody because I'd been divorced.
00:46:42But he said, I promise you, you'll never be bored.
00:46:48So, okay.
00:46:50He got married.
00:46:51He did.
00:46:51It was on the New York Times bestseller list as, I believe, number two.
00:46:56John took great pride that one year the only book that outsold it was the Bible.
00:47:02Is that right?
00:47:02Yeah.
00:47:03Yeah.
00:47:03And he was after that too.
00:47:17The letters we used to get from people, I mean, the one I remember is this letter where this guy
00:47:24said, I never used to be able to do anything, but I got your book and I fixed my car.
00:47:30And then I fixed the dishwasher.
00:47:34And then I fixed the washing machine.
00:47:37And now I'm building a house.
00:47:40So there you have it.
00:47:41Power to the people.
00:47:53You get up in the morning and you go to start your Volkswagen, it doesn't start.
00:47:57You get out your screwdriver and your wrench and you fix it.
00:47:59And then you go where you're going.
00:48:00If you've got a brand new car and you walk out in the morning and it doesn't start, you call
00:48:04the tow truck and ask the dealership how much money they want this time.
00:48:07I can work on them myself.
00:48:08I can pull the engine by myself.
00:48:10I've driven out to California where I've had to pull the engine two and three times to get the main
00:48:14seals to set or the tranny seal to set.
00:48:17You know, I can do it myself.
00:48:19There hasn't been but just a couple times in the 20, going on 30 years I've been driving these that
00:48:25I haven't been able to fix my car when it breaks down with just simple knowledge.
00:48:30I'm back on the road in the day.
00:48:31I don't have to go to the mechanic.
00:48:32I don't have to spend any money.
00:48:34I can do it by myself.
00:48:36Okay, take it off and do it more.
00:48:39My mom would always be the one working on the cars.
00:48:41So she would do simple things like we'd do the brakes together.
00:48:44I'd always be our fourth pair of hands, you know, get in there and help get the springs and everything
00:48:47lined back up.
00:48:48And whatever job she was doing, I was always in watching what she was doing.
00:48:52And I just thought that was normal that girls worked on cars.
00:48:55See that one's tight.
00:48:57Doesn't fit.
00:48:59So we need to fix that one.
00:49:00We talk about that global footprint we're leaving on the earth.
00:49:04Most people, they buy a car and every five years they get a new car.
00:49:08They created a built-in obsolescence and it's seen all across the industry.
00:49:13The Volkswagens were built to last forever.
00:49:16It's like, what are you going to do when your bus dies?
00:49:18Your bus doesn't die.
00:49:19It's like, well, what part died?
00:49:20You just replace that.
00:49:21And as long as they're not, they don't get rusted away or crashed, they pretty much have an infinite life.
00:49:26They just don't wear out.
00:49:27You can rebuild the suspension, brakes, cooling system.
00:49:31As long as you can keep those systems going, these things have an infinite life.
00:49:34And that really can't be said for other designs.
00:49:37There are some vehicles that are designed by other companies that are designed with obsolescence in mind.
00:49:43Buying a new car every three years and sending it to the recycler every 10 to 12 years is very
00:49:51dirty business.
00:49:51It just doesn't make any sense at all.
00:49:54I guess I missed the memo where you're supposed to buy a new car every four or five years to
00:49:58help stimulate the economy.
00:50:00And if by driving this car for 20 years, I prevented the manufacture of four or five cars.
00:50:07Like, yeah, I guess that's a pretty significant reduction in my carbon footprint.
00:50:18Well, you give the corporations a blowjob.
00:50:25When you drive your car, well, you could have rode a bicycle, man, you know.
00:50:29It's not that far.
00:50:31If you drive a big truck, they're gonna give you a gold star.
00:50:34You give the corporations a blowjob.
00:50:38When you drive your car, that's why they call them Hummers.
00:50:49Well, the fathers worked in factories making all kinds of stuff.
00:50:53They formed unions when they didn't get paid enough.
00:50:57And for a while, the companies played that game.
00:51:00Well, they don't know more.
00:51:02And things just won't be the same.
00:51:04Give them a blowjob.
00:51:17By 1956, there were more than 65 million cars on our roads.
00:51:22With 90 million forecast by 1975.
00:51:26Clearly, it was a time for national action.
00:51:28There's no way you could conceptualize how deep the Volkswagen bus runs in America road trip history.
00:51:34You know, it was America where the road trip was sort of born,
00:51:37because we had in the 50s, after the highway program, we had miles and miles and miles of freeway.
00:51:43Gas was cheap.
00:51:45Congress responded with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956,
00:51:49providing the staggering sum of 51 billion dollars to be spent by the states on highway construction by 1971.
00:51:56The fundamental reason why that was such a phenomenon here, and still is,
00:52:01the American road trip, is that you have such a big country.
00:52:04You know, there's lots of stuff to see.
00:52:07There's lots of room to drive around.
00:52:09Cross-country travel can be a rewarding experience for the whole family.
00:52:14On any cross-country vacation trip, the real expert is the one who takes the time to discover America.
00:52:46It's not just to get to your destination and do the skiing or do the climbing.
00:52:52Or visit the family.
00:52:54It's about getting there.
00:52:55We're right beyond that point right there.
00:52:57That's where we camped last year.
00:52:58Remember how nice that beach was?
00:52:59You look at a van and you're like, well, let's go.
00:53:02Where are we going?
00:53:03You know, like, and I got to tell you, there's a few really, really great places to be in the
00:53:08world.
00:53:08One is, on a nice day, one hour away from your house, on your way somewhere else.
00:53:14That is one of the best feelings that there is.
00:53:16Open road, all you've got in is adventure in front of you.
00:53:31There's no other vehicle that I've ever driven that you really get a rhythm of the road.
00:53:37After a few hours, it's a song.
00:53:41It's the road is singing to you and the sound and the car and the noise and the wind.
00:53:45You're riding along, it's like a big movie screen.
00:53:49You know, you're watching the whole world go by and you can see it all, you know.
00:53:54It kind of gets imprinted on the cortex of your brain.
00:53:58It's the weirdest thing.
00:54:03It gives me that opportunity to get away without having to deal with a hotel and, you know,
00:54:09Vanagon or bus gets you onto the back roads and when you're ready, just pull over and camp and you're
00:54:15there for as long as you want.
00:54:17That's freedom.
00:54:18That's what it's all about.
00:54:20I think that's what everything, everything's about.
00:54:23Freedom.
00:54:25And I don't mean freedom like, you know, American flag waving type freedom.
00:54:29I'm talking about just freedom to do what you want to do without anybody messing with you.
00:54:35Headed up the road, a red line at 45.
00:54:38One light's dim and the other one's bright.
00:54:41We're rolling in my diesel 80 tune.
00:54:49Drop a map and just point to Mexico.
00:54:53We'd be lucky if we made out of home.
00:54:55We're rolling in my diesel 80 tune.
00:55:03She ain't quite as young but she's nearly as pretty as you.
00:55:10I'm lucky to live in the era that I live in because, you know, if I was a hardcore hippie
00:55:15in the late 60s driving one of these, you know, I would get hassled by the cops.
00:55:19You know, you might get beat up in a redneck bar.
00:55:21It doesn't happen anymore.
00:55:22The rednecks are happy to see you too.
00:55:24Like, it's kind of just a universally accepted like, hey, that's a cute, styley, cool car.
00:55:30The lifestyle's romantic.
00:55:32We're all just happy to see you.
00:55:33Lucky me.
00:55:34There's not anybody that drives a Volkswagen bus or a van that is not worth a campfire and a couple
00:55:43of beers.
00:55:43There's not one that's not interesting to talk to.
00:55:4520 years from now, I'm hoping that I will still be able to get it out there and drive it
00:55:49in a sustainable manner.
00:55:51And I wish I was alive 30 years ago and had VWs and was able to drive it on 15
00:55:57cents a gallon gas.
00:55:59But that's just not, it's not reality anymore.
00:56:02So we need to basically wake up as a community and realize that we do need to source out other
00:56:08ways to keep these things going long term.
00:56:15For as long as I can remember, I've always been more home on the road.
00:56:19And traveling out, you know, being in a different place all the time.
00:56:22And so the lifestyle is great.
00:56:23I haven't paid rent in five years.
00:56:27It is very much in your face and very real and always things happening and romantic.
00:56:33You know, people come and go out of your life and when you say goodbye, you know, you don't know
00:56:37when you're going to see them.
00:56:38Like you're saying goodbye.
00:56:39And so it's a real thing.
00:56:40It cuts out a lot of the bullshit.
00:56:52The best thing you can do is make a conscious decision to really pay attention to where you're at.
00:56:57And if somebody's going to tell you a story, like, let them tell you a story.
00:57:01If someone's going to try and, someone's going to try and help you out, let them help you out.
00:57:06And when it's your turn to help somebody else out, you help them out.
00:57:09Like that's, that's how to live.
00:57:12The bus took, took a, a teenage boy that was me and forced me to do that.
00:57:20Forced me to do that.
00:57:24I guess for long enough, that may be a better person.
00:57:50And I've driven this thing at 50 miles an hour or slower for 300,000 miles.
00:57:58Which I guess is a significant portion of my life.
00:58:02It doesn't go 65, it doesn't go 70 miles an hour.
00:58:05So you go on the interstate and it's really kind of an unsafe situation because, you know, cars are coming
00:58:09up behind you too fast.
00:58:10And so you learn to take the back roads.
00:58:16And, and all of a sudden you start seeing more stuff.
00:58:18And you start going through these little towns that the new highways bypassed.
00:58:24And you stop someplace and you start talking to people.
00:58:27And all of a sudden, you know, maybe it, maybe it took you six hours to get there when it
00:58:31took your friend four.
00:58:33But, you know, you, you had a much better trip.
00:58:41Well, highways, they take longer.
00:58:47And you don't always pay to wander.
00:58:55And a fast train attaches harder.
00:59:00And the big boys sometimes take in water.
00:59:09But an airplane is just too easy.
00:59:15And you see me when you see me.
00:59:19And I get there when I do.
00:59:26Tell all my friends, I'm coming soon.
00:59:31Tell all my friends, I'm coming soon.
00:59:51Well, sun knows how to keep dry.
00:59:56And the cold winds blow just to get by.
01:00:04And the dust bowls, silver dogs like.
01:00:10And caballeros sing under the night skies.
01:00:18Back in the saddle, riding easy.
01:00:23And you see me when you see me.
01:00:29And I get there when I do.
01:00:33And I get there when I do.
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