Where were you May 4th, 1959? I was at home in Lake Sammamish, Washington. I hadn't yet had my second birthday when this brand spankin' new little German car showed up in our driveway. This photo was taken in June of 1960 when the car was a year old so I'd be around 2-1/2 then (a neighbor girl is in the photo with us three kids). Ain't it a beaut (what you can see of it)?
Dad really splurged on the options for the car. By far the most expensive one was the very basic AM tube-type radio for $69, but Dad liked to listen to the radio. The remaining options were: undercoating ($24), driver's outside mirror ($5.50), and fuel gauge ($19.50). A transportation charge of $6.30 was squeezed in there where the "safety belt" cost should have been (the car didn't have any). The main reason for this blog posting is that I recently ran across the invoice above in some paperwork my sister had that I told her I'd scan.
I still can remember turning on the AM radio and waiting for the tubes to warm up before anything would emanate from the speaker in the dash. And all these old VW's had a gas reserve lever for those times you ran out of gas and you could just flip the reserve lever a quarter turn and be able to drive to a gas station. Just remember to flip the lever back or the next time you run out of gas you'll be walking to the gas station.
A twilight shot of the car at Lake Sammamish.
This photo below was also taken in 1960. It's when my brave parents loaded us three gullible kids in the back and took a 1,200 mile road trip from Issaquah, Washington to southern California to visit Dad's sister Aunt Gladys and her family. The VW is there on the left.
This next photo was taken in 1969 at our Kirkland home, when the VW was 10 years old. Dad is on the bottom and we three kids are on top. The VW had a fairly new at the time carport stablemate, a 1966 Plymouth Fury VIP. We got that car in 1967 when it was a year old. I still have the license plates that are on both the VW and the VIP in the photo, ANT-792 and OCD-594. The OCD plates are currently (2026) on my 1966 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S.
These next three photos were taken at our home on Bainbridge Island in the 1970s. Here the old VW is nearing 20 years of age. It at least has a carport covering (until my brother got his first car and took over the carport).
The VW rarely seems to be at the forefront of any photos. Here it's behind the VIP. That's my brother and I getting the opportunity to cut up the log. No, we didn't land the log there, Dad did. Dropping the tree in the driveway made for easier clean-up.
Dad decided to finally get rid of the Volkswagen in November of 1983. He had commuted to work in this car for 23 years and when he retired, he decided to part ways with it. The car didn't go far though. He sold it to me for $100 and I promptly gave it my personal touches, like a shiny red paint job, and new rubber seals around the windows (from Bow Wow in Seattle). I also sewed and installed a black velour headliner for the car. I don't remember if the old one was torn or if I just wanted to make a change. These next two photos are at my parents home in Poulsbo.
There's that nifty license plate.
Yes the VW is in this next photo, hiding behind my 1967 Dodge D200 that I made a flatbed for. I also made the three axle gooseneck trailer from a mobile home frame. The dozer on the trailer is an early 60s Case 310 with a Davis backhoe attachment. Also in the photo are my brother's two vehicles, a blue 1966 Valiant with the venerable 225 slant six and a yellow 1967 GMC 3500 flatbed with a 351 V-6 and 4-speed. The truck behind my trailer is Dad's 1973 Chevrolet 2500 with a propane-fueled 454.
About 1989 I came across a deal I couldn't pass up. A guy at work had a 1970 Road Runner and he wanted to trade me straight across for my little ol' VW Bug. How could I pass that opportunity up? Unfortunately this next photo is the only one I have of the Road Runner exterior. It came with a 1971 440 installed but the guy also had the original numbers matching 383 that I rebuilt and put back in the car.
This photo shows the engine compartment of the Road Runner after the 383 rebuild.
After I got married and the first kid was coming, the wife and I decided it was time to move on from the Road Runner, so up for sale it went in the local Auto Trader. For whatever reason I saved the ad when I advertised the car (second from the top on the right). Yep, that's $2,383 I was asking for it at the time, rebuilt engine and all... I ended up trading the car to a guy stationed at Lewis McChord military base in Tacoma. He had a 1983 S-10 4x4 that he had swapped in a 4.3L V-6, but the work wasn't completed yet so I couldn't test drive it. I didn't know it at the time but the engine was out of balance due to him installing a wrong clutch that wasn't balanced to the engine. It was still a fun truck though.
Getting back to the VW, I ran into the guy who I traded it to for the Road Runner maybe 10 years ago. I asked him about it and he thought he still knew where it was (maybe at his sister's house?). I didn't try to pursue it, so that's the journey of the 1959 Volkswagen that was a very big part of my early life.
On another note, which of the above ten cars would you choose to buy for those prices today? I'm guessing the Road Runner would have appreciated the most in value in the 37 years since these cars were for sale. The '73 Dart Sport 340 would also be a pretty nifty catch for $1,000.
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