- 11 hours ago
A look at the history, evolution and cultural significance of the VW Bus.The VW Bus (officially known as the Volkswagen Type 2) is a classic multi-purpose van—introduced by the German automaker Volkswagen in 1950, following the Beetle (Type 1)—and stands as one of the brand’s most iconic and legendary models.
屡获殊荣的纪录片 :--
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.
经典历程与特点 :--
• 诞生与起源：自1950年问世以来，最初以T1为代表的VW Bus畅销全球，成为嬉皮士文化、露营车（Camper）以及自由旅行的象征。
• 现代纯电回归：大众汽车推出了复古风格的纯电动多功能休旅车——大众ID. Buzz（大众ID. Buzz），完美致敬1950年代的经典T1血统，并提供长轴距与多达七人座等现代化配置。
屡获殊荣的纪录片 :--
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.
经典历程与特点 :--
• 诞生与起源：自1950年问世以来，最初以T1为代表的VW Bus畅销全球，成为嬉皮士文化、露营车（Camper）以及自由旅行的象征。
• 现代纯电回归：大众汽车推出了复古风格的纯电动多功能休旅车——大众ID. Buzz（大众ID. Buzz），完美致敬1950年代的经典T1血统，并提供长轴距与多达七人座等现代化配置。
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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!
00:04:10I'm watching!
00:04:10Every day you'll see the dust!
00:04:13You're my magic bus!
00:04:36The history of the VWB bus goes back to the Nazis,
00:04:40interestingly enough, because Ferdinand Portia,
00:04:43the same guy, you 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 it 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.
00:05:55In 1947, Ben Pon, he was the first guy who was allowed to sell VWs to the public.
00:06:02He was in the VW factory and he saw these guys driving around these kind of cars
00:06:09and he said, this is kind of stupid.
00:06:11You have to put the driver's seat in front of the car and not behind the car.
00:06:15And then he took his notebook and he made a drawing
00:06:20and this drawing is well-known throughout the buses family
00:06:23because 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.
00:06:42That was painted by a friend of his.
00:06:5058.
00:06:52That's a drawing.
00:06:56You see the wheels, 750 kilos.
00:07:00Engine.
00:07:03Cabin, steering wheel.
00:07:05After the war, there was not much left, right?
00:07:08So, he thought a little transport, that was a future.
00:07:12It was a big market.
00:07:15And he was right.
00:07:17All right.
00:07:46We'll see you next month.
00:07:50and there were so many of them around that everybody's got a Volkswagen bus
00:07:54story whether they've owned one or not or ridden in their friend's bus it
00:07:58doesn't matter where you go I've been all over Europe in this man I went down
00:08:01to Barcelona last summer and I took my family on holiday with it with a roof
00:08:05tent and the people that come up to you and just want to talk about it it's
00:08:10amazing you know and there's so many situations where you get to meet people
00:08:15where you wouldn't if you were any other vehicle you know to me it's about the
00:08:18people you know and the vibe that is created from these vehicles what other
00:08:21car can you drive to work and have 10 people smile and wave to you as you
00:08:25drive by I'm not sure but I'm guessing they're not doing that to the and to the
00:08:29PT crews that they just drove by or to the and the Chevy pickup you know you they
00:08:33wave they stop even this morning just driving down here we're sitting in a
00:08:36traffic jam in London and some guys walking past stop take photos just at the
00:08:40side of the street you know but that's what it's like here it's crazy people
00:08:44love a camper van whether it be traffic on your side of the highway or the other
00:08:47side you can just feel people looking constantly we've been in town in the
00:08:51West End of London with all our call flow buses and we have stopped traffic on the
00:08:58busiest junctions Piccadilly Circus Oxford Street people have been jumping in a
00:09:02road taking pictures it's just massively iconic and it's that smiley face in the
00:09:08front of a split it's just a complete head-turner everybody's got some story they
00:09:11want to tell you you're making instant friends no matter where you go it's
00:09:14really kind of nice if you're not a friendly sort it's going to be it's
00:09:18going to be a bother after a while you know you can become jaded to people
00:09:23good-heartedly walking up to you and wanting to tell you their Volkswagen
00:09:26stories and this and that so we came up with a menu plan which is going to be as
00:09:30soon as somebody walks up and then have that look of anticipation in their eye
00:09:33just hand on the menu and the menu says if you would like to tell us a story
00:09:37about how you used to have a bus just like this that'll cost you five dollars if
00:09:43you'd like to tell a story about how your parents had a bus like this and you
00:09:45grew up and had to play be under blankets in the wintertime because he didn't work
00:09:49blah blah blah ten bucks you have to give us ten bucks to put up with that and if
00:09:54you want to tell me which way I should paint my bus that's twenty dollars I'm
00:09:58really tired of hearing how I should paint my bus because if I wanted to paint it
00:10:01that way I would have already done it that's our menu idea when we're feeling
00:10:06jaded but most the time we're you know we're always happy to talk to people
00:10:08and tell you know it's 65 it's a sundial it's got this it was originally a
00:10:13panel van got this many miles and yes I adjust the valves you would never hear a
00:10:19story from anybody about going on a trip and experiencing a breakdown and had
00:10:26that spun into a positive experience
00:10:28push, push, okay, okay, I'm putting it in gear
00:10:39no honey, come on, come on, come on, come on, halfway there we broke down and we had to spend
00:10:44three days in this little hick town with you know one garage they had to you know we
00:10:49had to wait for the part to come and we got to know these people you know we stayed in
00:10:53this little motel and ate in this little bar and even if the trip was
00:10:57uneventful people remember going places in these things it's fantastic you don't
00:11:03get that from people who are behind the wheel of a you know a Honda Odyssey the
00:11:08thing breaks down chances are they're gonna just ditch it and get a rental car
00:11:12and keep going they're not gonna stick around but when you're traveling in a van
00:11:15again with a pop-top and all your food and your clothes and your kids and
00:11:18everything you own is in it you just can't part with that you got to figure out a
00:11:22way to fix it and you got to figure out a way to keep going and that's that's
00:11:25where 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
00:12:00stylistically or mechanically and you can work on I've busted a valve once near
00:12:05Moab Utah and I drove on three cylinders all the way to Colorado found a buddy's
00:12:10shop and we pulled the engine and stripped it all the way down to the short
00:12:14block and put it all back together again reinstalled it in time to go out to
00:12:17dinner that night and the perfect vehicle mines my off-road vehicle my race car my
00:12:27work vehicle my show car it does all the different functions I need
00:12:40I haven't owned anything other than air-cooled Volkswagen's ever really so I
00:12:46guess for me it's a lifestyle by default with nothing else
00:12:51so this is our deluxe chicken coop here all the buses I found over the years that
00:12:57were turned into chicken coops I never thought I'd make one myself and it sort of
00:13:00goes well with our garden shed they are what's up with you making chicken chicken on the
00:13:05diving board as far as the bus culture and stuff I mean I'm in a strange subset of a
00:13:10subset of bus guys I mean the Shasta guys are the weirdest of the weird bus guys
00:13:15that they're the ones even the bus people look at so it's strange
00:13:18oh my god
00:13:21E-brake! E-brake!
00:13:26the Shasta snow trip for the first few years it was a small group of guys picked
00:13:31a route to Mount Shasta on Groundhog's Day and had a blast it was 420 miles in
00:13:37one day and when you start out at 4 a.m. and we've had times when we've pulled in to
00:13:44Shasta at 6 a.m. so we've driven 26 hours straight point was to show what you
00:13:50could do in a Volkswagen bus and to show that you don't have to have a 4x4 to go
00:13:55out and go off-road and that if you prepare and have a good knowledge of your
00:14:01bus that you can get through adverse conditions and make it this is a rusty
00:14:05bus it's my Shasta rig put over 200,000 miles on it
00:14:10headed over 100 miles per hour a couple of times jumped it and slid 180s in it
00:14:17carried 3,500 pounds of rocks in it once tried buses halfway across the country with
00:14:21it before definitely got my $125 worth out of it
00:14:45we got married in the back of his double cab our vows were read out of a workshop
00:14:54manual our preacher was bus club member number two and we have our VW rings the
00:15:03rest is history she was cute she was smart she can weld she can sew she can
00:15:08build an engine and she can fix a reduction box overnight I mean by
00:15:13scrounging parts and building tools if I remember correctly I think I proposed to
00:15:18her the first day it's just hard to find a good bus girl if your TV set broke down
00:15:23right now could your wife find something to talk about is she the kind of
00:15:28wife that can bake her own bread does she worry about the arms race do the
00:15:35neighbors kids wish they had her for a mother will your wife say yes to a
00:15:40camping trip after 50 straight weeks of cooking will she let your daughter keep a
00:15:46pet snake in the backyard can you show up very late for dinner without calling
00:15:52first with two old friends will your wife let the kids eat frankfurters for
00:15:59breakfast would she name a cat Rover would she let you give up your job with a
00:16:04smile and mean it congratulations you have the right kind of life for the
00:16:09Volkswagen station wagon when the bus came to town in the late 50s it was
00:16:17totally different than all these American cars which were heavier had worse gas
00:16:22mileage focused on glamour and size and power and showing off and the whole point
00:16:31was to show that you were wealthy the bus and the beetle exuded a whole different
00:16:38sort of vibe and they were based on a whole different concept Volkswagen was
00:16:43actually forward-thinking in going with a relatively small unknown advertising
00:16:50company called Doyle Dane Bernbach the advertising campaign that they started
00:16:54with Volkswagen helped make them into a very well-known and you know one of the
00:16:59most well-respected advertising agencies I mean you know there were dozens and
00:17:03dozens of these ads that came out all through the 60s and 70s so basically the
00:17:08strategy was we know this car is weird so rather than trying to pretend that it's
00:17:12not weird and try and fit it into sort of the box of American cars because it
00:17:16just isn't why don't we play up that weirdness and use it as an asset and sort
00:17:21of turn that on its head
00:17:25the Volkswagen station wagon is big enough to seat nine comfortably however in a
00:17:30pinch you can do much better in fact it can hold things ordinary station wagons
00:17:35wouldn't even consider
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.
00:18:54Okay, it's all yours.
00:18:59Yeah, as Lou mentioned, the bus is called Vincent.
00:19:04Bought it when I was 17 years old.
00:19:06Been driving it for 20 years.
00:19:09Taught me a lot of things.
00:19:11Yeah, one 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 pickup 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.
00:19:52I turned the keys.
00:19:54I put Harlow and Guthrie on.
00:20:00Yeah, over to the Cutthroat Saloon, if you could.
00:20:04Hey, good afternoon.
00:20:06Hey, I was calling to try and find out who's in charge of booking live music there.
00:20:12Right on, and 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 when 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, which 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, maybe even honky-tonk.
00:21:13The tour bus, yeah.
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 the 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 about
00:21:46hippies and drugs and freedom and youth and revolution and the 60s.
00:21:51You know, prioritizing sort 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 and
00:22:32theoretically not get caught.
00:22:34We were all a bunch of old hippies, is 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?
00:24:00Do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you?
00:24:04Fuck!
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, 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, the best place that it
00:24:30was sort of recreated over time through the 70s, through the 80s, through the 90s was through The Grateful Dead.
00:24:49You know, here was this iconic, you know, hugely popular rock and roll band that traveled all the time and
00:24:56toured all the time all over the country.
00:25:01They were there way back in the beginning in the Haight-Ashbury, you know, they were on the forefront of
00:25:07this sort of psychedelic culture, hippie culture, you know, drug culture.
00:25:13Through their touring, they created a cultural space in which people could, you know, be young, do drugs, have their
00:25:23buses, you know, it was all tied up in that.
00:25:30This is an advertisement that is from Rolling Stone magazine from 1995.
00:25:38This 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 by a car manufacturing company, you know, a
00:26:04huge automobile company, acknowledging 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, and they believed in the car.
00:26:23And I think they were genuinely grateful, you know, and appreciative of the fact that you had this strong identity
00:26:31that grew up around their car.
00:26:47Other subcultures also grabbed a hold 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, and that was
00:27:21the car.
00:27:26Surfers are kind of real individualistic, and 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, you go three miles up this way, it might be great.
00:28:12And, you know, if you're on a surf trip, you're on a surf trip, you're on a surf trip.
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.
00:28:39It was a hippie engineer bus wet dream.
00:28:44There's only one way to improve upon the Vanagon.
00:28:47Use a Volkswagen exclusive.
00:28:49Synchro four-wheel drive technology.
00:28:52Synchro is not just four-wheel drive, it's better.
00:28:56Synchro four-wheel drive, the perfect addition to the already versatile Vanagon.
00:29:01I just purchased a new 20-year-old car.
00:29:05It's a Volkswagen Synchro.
00:29:07It's a four-wheel drive bus that they made very few of them for some reason.
00:29:11And they rarely come up for sale because the people who buy them really love them.
00:29:16So one came up and I leapt upon it.
00:29:18This was the ugly face of the Starship Enterprise.
00:29:21Kind of looks 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.
00:29:32And I had this baby tricked out from soup to nuts.
00:29:35From 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
00:29:51take them pretty much anywhere.
00:30:37It was the ultimate last hurrah of the micro bus.
00:30:41When I was 20, I would do things on my bus that I would never, you know, recommend anybody
00:30:47try to do.
00:30:47It's nirvana.
00:30:48They do things that only Jeeps are, you know, classically known to do.
00:30:53But then you stop on the top of that hill you made it to, and you pop your top, you
00:30:57got
00:30:57your ice-cold beers in your fridge, and everyone's just green with envy.
00:31:15This is Walter, and what you're seeing right now is a skinned version of this original firetruck.
00:31:22He is two to one scale.
00:31:24So Archimedes was the first one who realized that for similar shaped objects, small one
00:31:30and then a large one, you need to take the cube of that scale in order to determine the volume.
00:31:37So Walter, even though he's only two to one scale, he's eight times the volume of a normal bus.
00:31:44330-gallon water tank runs an onboard misting system, because Walter was created to go to
00:31:49Burning Man, where it's super hot and super dry.
00:31:54I was way out on the playa where you're away from where the city of Burning Man is, where
00:31:59there's just nothing.
00:31:59And it was at night, it was dark, probably had a few drinks in me, and I see this Volkswagen
00:32:04bus, you know, I recognize the way the headlights work.
00:32:06Keeps getting closer and closer, and then finally I saw a person standing next to it, and I'm
00:32:11just like, that thing's the wrong size.
00:32:26Dozens of artisans who have taken on some aspect of it, mostly with free rein, in terms of do
00:32:33what you think is right, and so, probably why it's as cool as it is, is because so many
00:32:40people just poured their creative energy into it, and in my mind it's kind of become community
00:32:45property 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, it is freedom, and he represents that for me, despite
00:33:06his enormous size, you know, it's like the ability to go somewhere and not be constrained
00:33:12by houses and towns and rules and things like that, and I think that that was really the
00:33:18bus.
00:33:19The bus gave, you know, a generation the ability to hit the road and to do it really well.
00:33:26Walter is proof that if you think of something, even if it's sort of crazy, that it can be
00:33:33done, that it really can.
00:33:49I am in absolute sticker shock right now.
00:33:53Couldn't 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 the original sale price of this.
00:34:11These are not hippie vans anymore because they're too expensive, and that, honestly, that breaks
00:34:17my heart.
00:34:18There's so many people wanting so many early buses that it's just pushed the price through
00:34:21the roof.
00:34:21You know, there was a time when you'd buy a bus for £600-$700, whereas now, you can't
00:34:25find a bus under £6,000-$7,000 split screen.
00:34:29Bay window price buses have gone through the roof, a good bay will cost you £25,000, which
00:34:35is insane.
00:34:35With the exception of Europe and America, and maybe some other cultures around the world,
00:34:41the bus really isn't viewed in this romantic light like we see it.
00:34:44They're designed to be people movers, cargo movers, and you still see that in third world
00:34:49countries.
00:34:50It's so versatile.
00:34:52You can carry a hundred chickens in it, or eight people, or ten people.
00:34:58You can do stuff with it.
00:34:59You can get needs met.
00:35:39But it's so versatile, you can do stuff with it.
00:35:54Four persons here, and there, and here, four persons.
00:36:16Four persons here, and there, and here, and here, four persons.
00:36:44Four persons here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
00:37:06Just the way things are set up is just really unique and really cute, especially in the
00:37:11split window.
00:37:12The dashboard is really cute.
00:37:13It kind of looks like a jukebox almost.
00:37:15It's kind of bent, and it's got little slots in it, and the pedals, like your brake pedal
00:37:19and your clutch pedal, are attached to the strange.
00:37:20They look like a little mushroom growing out of the floor, like no American car has that
00:37:25sort 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 in
00:37:29your 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
00:37:36out on the ground, you know?
00:37:38A lot of people focus on the front end of the bus, but I'm kind of an ass man, and
00:37:42I
00:37:42just 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 seen.
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?
00:38:23Of course, this one doesn't have the emblem.
00:38:24Well, you get the emblem on there, it's got a little nose and eyes and, you know, the
00:38:29smile bumper and little eyebrows and stuff, you know?
00:38:34Kind of an innate character that's almost human, many human qualities, which include failures.
00:38:45Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, they labeled it one of the ten worst cars of all time,
00:38:52focusing on 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 Tappet
00:39:08Brothers here at Car Talk Plaza.
00:39:10888-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?
00:39:24Yeah.
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.
00:39:36But this is my third one I love.
00:39:38Is this a scenario, you're driving along, somebody's behind you?
00:39:40Yes, totally, it was the first time.
00:39:41They see the flames shooting out of the...
00:39:43Well, 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, this 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
00:40:31that's going to be traveling 65 miles an hour down the road, you know,
00:40:35because in a front-end crash, it's not going to be a pretty picture.
00:40:40We weren't thinking about that.
00:40:41We were just thinking about how to get the stuff in, you know,
00:40:44and where to put the people, and...
00:40:46And the other thing that is inherently not as safe about a rear-engine vehicle
00:40:51is that the mass of the power plant is behind you.
00:40:55So when you hit anything, the crumple zone between you and whatever you hit
00:40:59has to absorb the mass of the vehicle, of you, and of all the drivetrain that comes behind it.
00:41:05When you move the power plant to in front of the occupants, whatever you hit,
00:41:09the kinetic energy of the power plant, which is moving, is absorbed by whatever you hit,
00:41:15as opposed to having to come through you.
00:41:17So I think that the saving grace is they sit so high
00:41:20that they'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,
00:41:30and the Vanagon takes out the softer part of the vehicle.
00:41:33Because of the economic and safety necessities, it had to die.
00:42:07See you next week, everybody.
00:42:31They introduced the Eurovan in 92 in Europe, the first ones came to the United States in
00:42:3693.
00:42:36The Eurovan went to a front-engine, front-wheel drive, so their driving characteristic is
00:42:40much different.
00:42:41It's much more like a minivan.
00:42:43But they maintain the character of the pop-top, semi-self-contained travel machine.
00:42:49But the real sad reality is that the Eurovan is different.
00:42:53It's much more like other vans than it is like anything Volkswagen did with the Vanagon
00:42:59and before.
00:43:00It's a real defining point.
00:43:02There is no VW bus available of any kind since 2003 in the United States.
00:43:06If they decided to sell a T5 California in the United States, it would cost about $70,000
00:43:12or $80,000.
00:43:13And there's just no way that they could compete.
00:43:21When you're talking about cultural icons, the reputation of something like the bus is something
00:43:27that comes from all different directions.
00:43:31It comes from kids seeing their friends have them at shows.
00:43:35It comes from the advertising campaign.
00:43:37And then along the way, there are also individuals who stand out as particularly sort of, you know,
00:43:43had a bigger role than others.
00:43:45One of those people that stands out is someone that really advanced sort of the scope and
00:43:51the depth of bus culture was John Muir who published a repair manual starting in 1969 that was then
00:44:01reprinted 20 times and was, you know, sold over 2 million copies.
00:44:08And his repair manual explained to people how you could fix the bus yourself.
00:44:15How to keep your Volkswagen alive, a manual step-of-step procedures for the complete idiot with
00:44:19complete spelled wrong on the cover so you know it must be good.
00:44:22I'm John Muir and we're making a tape today.
00:44:28When I say we, I really mean we.
00:44:37To show you about this book and some of the things that are in it.
00:44:43And this 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.
00:45:08So, 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
00:45:20perhaps even 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.
00:45:36It'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, be on kindly
00:45:53terms 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,
00:46:06it 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'd know that he wasn't a liar.
00:46:29He led an incredibly interesting life.
00:46:33I mean, very, very unusual.
00:46:35John asked me to marry him and 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, he got married.
00:46:52It 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.
00:47:01Is that right?
00:47:02Yeah, and 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
00:47:23this guy said, I never used to be able to do anything.
00:47:27But I got your book and I fixed my car.
00:47:31And 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, power to the people.
00:47:53You get up in the morning and you go to start your Volkswagen and it doesn't start.
00:47:57You get out your screwdriver and your wrench and you fix it and then you go where you're
00:48:00going.
00:48:00If you've got a brand new car and you walk out in the morning and it doesn't start, you
00:48:04call the 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
00:48:13get the main seals 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
00:48:25these that I 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.
00:48:34Start it.
00:48:35I can do it by myself.
00:48:36Okay, just take it off and do it more.
00:48:38My 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
00:48:47everything lined 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.
00:48:55That one's tight.
00:48:57Doesn't fit.
00:48:59Just ready to fix that one.
00:49:01We 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
00:49:25an 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
00:49:43in mind.
00:49:43Buying a new car every three years and sending them to the recycler every 10 to 12 years is
00:49:50very dirty business.
00:49:52It just doesn't make any sense at all.
00:49:54I guess I miss 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 pretty significant reduction in my carbon footprint.
00:50:11I can't believe that.
00:50:18Is.
00:50:19You give the corporations a blowjob
00:50:24When you drive your car
00:50:27Well you could have rode a bicycle man, you know
00:50:29It's not that far
00:50:31If you drive a big truck
00:50:33They're gonna give you a gold star
00:50:34You give the corporations a blowjob
00:50:38When you drive your car
00:50:41That'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
00:50:56And for a while the companies played that game
00:51:00Well they don't know more
00:51:02That 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
00:51:21With 90 million forecast by 1975
00:51:25Clearly it was a time for national action
00:51:28There's no way you could conceptualize
00:51:30How 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 50's after the highway program
00:51:40We had miles and miles and miles of freeway
00:51:42Gas was cheap
00:51:45Congress responded with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956
00:51:49Providing the staggering sum of 51 billion dollars
00:51:53To be spent by the states on highway construction by 1971
00:51:57The fundamental reason why that was such a phenomenon here
00:52:00And still is the American road trip
00:52:02Is that you have such a big country
00:52:04You know there's lots of stuff to see
00:52:06There'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
00:52:16The real expert is the one who takes the time to discover America
00:52:42Part of the experience when traveling in one of these VW vans
00:52:46Is the traveling itself
00:52:48It's not just to get to your destination and do the skiing
00:52:50Or do the climbing
00:52:52Or visit the family
00:52:53It's about getting there
00:52:54We're right beyond that point right there
00:52:56That'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
00:53:00Well, let's go
00:53:02Where are we going?
00:53:03You know like
00:53:04And I gotta tell you
00:53:05There's a few really really great places to be in the world
00:53:08One is
00:53:09On a nice day
00:53:11One hour away from your house
00:53:13On your way somewhere else
00:53:14That is one of the best feelings that there is
00:53:16Open road
00:53:17All you've got in is adventure in front of you
00:53:31There's no other vehicle that I've ever driven
00:53:34That you really get a rhythm of the road
00:53:37After a few hours
00:53:39It's a song
00:53:40It's the road is singing to you
00:53:42And the sound
00:53:43And the car
00:53:44And the noise
00:53:44And the wind
00:53:45You're riding along
00:53:47It's like a big movie screen
00:53:49You know
00:53:50You're watching the whole world go by
00:53:52And you can see it all
00:53:53You know
00:53:54It kind of gets imprinted on the cortex of your brain
00:53:57It's the weirdest thing
00:54:03It gives me that opportunity to get away
00:54:06Without having to deal with a hotel
00:54:08And you know
00:54:09Vanagon
00:54:09Or bus
00:54:10Get you onto the back roads
00:54:13And when you're ready
00:54:13Just pull over and camp
00:54:15And you're there
00:54:15For 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
00:54:22Everything's about
00:54:23Freedom
00:54:25And I don't mean freedom like
00:54:26You know
00:54:27American flag waving type freedom
00:54:29I'm talking about just
00:54:30Freedom to do
00:54:32What you want to do
00:54:33Without anybody messing with you
00:54:34Headed up the road
00:54:35A red line at 45
00:54:38One light's dim
00:54:39And the other one's bright
00:54:41We're rolling
00:54:43Me and my diesel lady too
00:54:49Drop a map and just point to Mexico
00:54:52We'd be lucky if we made out of home
00:54:55We're rolling
00:54:58Me and my diesel lady too
00:55:03She ain't quite as young
00:55:05But she's nearly as pretty as you
00:55:10I'm lucky to live in the era that I live in
00:55:13Because you know
00:55:13If I was a hardcore hippy
00:55:15In the late 60's
00:55:16Driving one of these
00:55:17You know
00:55:17I would get hassled by the cops
00:55:19You know
00:55:19You might get beat up in a redneck bar
00:55:21That doesn't happen anymore
00:55:22The rednecks are happy to see you too
00:55:24Like
00:55:25It's kind of just universally accepted
00:55:27Like hey that's a cute
00:55:28Styly
00:55:29Cool
00:55:29Car
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
00:55:36Or a van
00:55:38That
00:55:39Is not worth
00:55:41A campfire
00:55:42And a couple of beers
00:55:43There's not one that's not interesting to talk to
00:55:4520 years from now
00:55:46I'm hoping that I will still be able to
00:55:48Get it out there and drive it
00:55:49In a sustainable manner
00:55:51And
00:55:51I wish
00:55:52I was alive
00:55:5330 years ago
00:55:54And had VW's
00:55:55And was able to drive it on
00:55:5715 cents a gallon gas
00:55:59But
00:55:59That's just not
00:56:00It's not reality anymore
00:56:02So we need to basically wake up
00:56:04As a community
00:56:04And realize
00:56:05That we do need to
00:56:07Source out other ways
00:56:08To keep these things going
00:56:09Long term
00:56:15For as long as I can remember
00:56:16I've always been more
00:56:17Home on the road
00:56:18And traveling
00:56:19You know
00:56:19Being in a different place
00:56:20All the time
00:56:21And so the lifestyle is great
00:56:23I haven't paid rent
00:56:24In five years
00:56:27It is very much in your face
00:56:28And very real
00:56:29And always things happening
00:56:30And
00:56:32And romantic
00:56:33You know people come and go
00:56:34Out of your life
00:56:35And when you say goodbye
00:56:35You know you're
00:56:36You don't know when you're going to see them
00:56:37Like you're saying goodbye
00:56:39And so it's a real thing
00:56:40It cuts out a lot of the bullshit
00:56:41The sun is
00:56:44Saking low
00:56:48The hour
00:56:50Is getting late
00:56:52The best thing you can do
00:56:53Is make a conscious decision
00:56:55To really pay attention
00:56:56To where you're at
00:56:57And if somebody's going to tell you a story
00:56:59Like let them tell you a story
00:57:01If someone's going to try and
00:57:03Someone's going to try and help you out
00:57:05Let them help you out
00:57:05And when it's your turn to help somebody else out
00:57:08You help them out
00:57:09Like that's
00:57:11That's how to live
00:57:12The bus
00:57:14Took
00:57:14Took
00:57:15A teenage boy
00:57:16That was me
00:57:18And
00:57:18Forced me to do that
00:57:20Forced me to do that
00:57:24I guess for long enough
00:57:25That may be a better person
00:57:50And I've driven this thing at 50 miles an hour slower
00:57:54For 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
00:58:04So you go on the interstate
00:58:05And it's really kind of an unsafe situation
00:58:08Because you know
00:58:09Cars are coming up behind you too fast
00:58:10And so you learn
00:58:12To take the back roads
00:58:15And
00:58:16And all of a sudden you start seeing more stuff
00:58:18And you start
00:58:19Going through these little towns
00:58:20That the new highways bypassed
00:58:23And
00:58:24You stop some place
00:58:25And you start talking to people
00:58:27And all of a sudden
00:58:28You know
00:58:28Maybe it took you six hours
00:58:30To get there
00:58:31When it took your friend four
00:58:32But
00:58:33You know
00:58:34You
00:58:35You had a much better trip
00:58:41You know
00:58:42Highways
00:58:43They take longer
00:58:46And
00:58:47You don't always
00:58:49Pay
00:58:50The one
00:58:55And
00:58:56Fast train
00:58:57Attaches harder
00:59:01And
00:59:02And
00:59:02The big boys
00:59:03Sometimes
00:59:04Taking water
00:59:09But
00:59:10An airplane
00:59:11Is
00:59:12Just
00:59:13Too easy
00:59:15And
00:59:15You see me
00:59:16When
00:59:18You see me
00:59:19And
00:59:21And
00:59:21I get there
00:59:23When
00:59:24I do
00:59:25Tell
00:59:27All my
00:59:27Friends
00:59:28Are
00:59:29Coming soon
00:59:31Tell
00:59:32All my
00:59:33Friends
00:59:34Are
00:59:35Coming soon
00:59:51Well
00:59:52Sun knows
00:59:53How to keep dry
00:59:56And
00:59:57The cold winds blow
00:59:59For just
01:00:00To get by
01:00:05And
01:00:05The dust bowls
01:00:07Silver
01:00:08Dogs
01:00:09Like
01:00:11Caballeros
01:00:12Under
01:00:13The night skies
01:00:18Back
01:00:19Back
01:00:19In
01:00:19Saddle
01:00:21Riding
01:00:22Riding
01:00:22Easy
01:00:24And
01:00:24You see me
01:00:26When
01:00:27You see me
01:00:29And
01:00:30I get there
01:00:32When
01:00:33I do
01:00:33It
01:00:33It
01:00:33You
01:00:33It
01:00:34It