An Overview . . . now unlocked

[Amskeptic]

The air-cooled Volkswagen took root around the world because of the exceptional quality offered in a unique design that was well-engineered.
It earned a loyal following because it was honest, easy to work on, refreshingly direct in its manners, all delivered with beautiful craftsmanship at a very reasonable price.

Disdained and ridiculed at its introduction to the United States in 1949, the VW was the antithesis of what the Conventional Wisdom held as fact, that people wanted ever bigger flashier and more powerful cars.

Its stunning success trashed the conventional wisdom. Apparently there were quite a number of people who were sick of the huge sloppy excesses of the 50's, they just wanted a simple car to get around in. Turns out the simple cars were reliable and a lot of fun to drive too. People who had been subjected to the empty florid vapid suggestiveness of domestic automobile advertising also appreciated the terrific Doyle Dane Bernbach ads that spoke with intelligent directness and used simple photographs to show off these self-described "ugly" cars. The first Volkswagen owners were a proud fraternity of people who knew they had a gem of a car that few onlookers even bothered to understand.



This site is dedicated to furthering the values that the air-cooled VW represented. We want to keep it simple, offer quality resources, and we want to respect the unique talents of those who may be responding to the beat of a different drummer. We are also rabidly committed to championing the cause of Buy Quality Parts! PAY! Cough it up! Suffer a little! You will find that the pain goes away sooner than getting a bargain that falls apart in your lap or doesn't even fit. We will compile a compendium of Known Acceptable Parts and Belatedly Discovered Junk.

The vehicle forums are primarily dedicated to community interactions, the day-to-day Life With Your Volkswagen. Feel free to share your successes, conundrums, travels, and travails. You are invited to ask questions and better yet, answer questions as you become proficient.

The technical forums are organized by system to help you generalize your knowledge amongst all the VWs that share the same engineering principles while you can more easily hunt down the information you seek. These forums will help suppress irrelevancy (and you can help by paying attention to what you feel you must share in these forums) by virtue of the fact that people will be less likely (thus far disproven) to sprout chatty little cliques in such a dry engineering environment. We want to emphasize successful diagnosis/troubleshooting/solutions in these forums because it is the single most important skill you will need to possess to truly enjoy and utilize your VW.

We are not afraid of social commentary, politics, or religion here. We are citizens first, hobbyists second. We invite you to participate using your advanced adult behavior skill set. The people who are drawn to air-cooled VWs now, as way back then, tend to appreciate quality and charm in a unique package that still falls well outside of the conventional box. You will find that much of our Free Speech commentary follows the above recipe. Enjoy the diversity. Keep your emotional triggers at home.

The increasing interest in these cars may be signalling a new return to the old values that made these cars great in the first place. We hope to honor them here.
Colin
(comments and suggestions welcomed)


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