A fond farewell to the VW bus

After 56 years of production, the Volkswagen Type 2 Microbus is finally being put to rest.

Anyone have fond memories of the VW bus? Camping? Groovy murals? A summer of love? Favorite model year? Share them here.

I always wanted one of those, along with the lifestyle to go with it. (Note: This does not include the Nun thing. Do not want.)

Margie

I would really love to fix up a '60s model, modernize the interior, and travel around in it classic-family-vacation-to-the-Grand-Canyon style.

Also, not quite VW bus-related, but did anyone ever tell you my mom traveled the country in a decomissioned mail carrier vehicle with a mattress in the back? (This kind.)

No, that's not the kind of thing she probably would've been eager to bring up in front of her in-laws... which is too bad. I think it's cool!

This thing came up for sale last week on Bring-a-trailer, and Tim and I were set to go look at it but found out it was sold:

Dodge Van Corey Cruiser. For some reason, I really dig it.

Margie

I happened across this discussion a couple days ago regarding a restoration of a VW bus: http://www.ssvc.org.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=35155

Considering what they started with, it's pretty epic.

Years ago I took a half-hour flying lesson in some sort of two-seat aircraft. Driving a VW Bus is a similar experience at a much lower altitude.

Years ago I drove a '72 model once a week for a 300 mile round trip to pick up news papers for a friend's company. It was through the sorta mountains in TN. I actually really liked the bus, it was fun to drive and sounded cool, if pretty low on power. You got to drive really hard and never broke the speed limit. I'd love to own a split window version with an updated larger motor.

A guy at work just finished a restoration on an early '70's model. He spent a fortune restoring it, but he and his wife love it. He's an air cooled guy of course and loves on VW's.

My mind = blown. I figured they quit making these things 30 years ago. A good friend of mine used to have several rusting away in a field and might have had one or two that actually were driveable.

I've had three: a '64 that was my only transportation for years, a '68, and a '79 Westfalia. I've taken multiple weeks-long road trips in all of them, way up in the mountains in blizzards, across 115F deserts, on dirt roads that would challenge a 4x4, on the Interstates, you name it. In what must be several hundred thousand miles, none of them ever left me stranded, although I did have to make a few roadside repairs now and again.

They are completely miserable if you think of them as conventional cars. They are laughably slow -- which is probably good because the brakes are really inadequate -- and the word "handling" simply does not apply. Any sort of crosswind makes staying in your lane a white knuckle experience. The temperature inside the bus is going to be pretty much the same as the temperature outside the bus. Seats are not comfortable, and the driving position is weird. They will carry a whole bunch of stuff, they will go anywhere without getting stuck, and they'll do it economically. I've always had a true love / hate relationship with the things.

Too many stories...

Hate to see it go............a true icon

I had a '68 that I chopped up and welded back together into a "king cab."

It was insanely fun, and dangerously ill mannered and as cold inside as it was outside. Much like just waking there, but you got all dirty and banged up in the process.

I'd own another in a minute if I could find one that I could afford.