Sure, a Miata is groovy, but a bus is groovier

[ruckman101]

A friend of ours retired recently and has been on a six month hiatus in Maui. She tasked us with keeping an eye on her place locally, furniture deliveries, drop in, spend the night, drive her cars, dust, habituate a bit. The Ford Ranger, ehh. The Miata much more fun. Sweet ride. But it lacks. Just another car.

Dropped it off and got my Bertha Bay Window Bus back into traffic today. From a block and a half away, high school teen honeys started waving at me approaching, yelling out in passing they loved my van. Eh, I can forgive them that faux passé. It is a bus after all. Gassing up, dude tells me he digs my bus. And even just tooling, heads turn. Ya just don't get the same kudos from a Miata. Don't get me started on the Ghia.


neal

[Bleyseng]

I always get lots of looks and smiles from the ghia and westy. The 914 no one knows what it is other than a bright orange sportscar.

[Boxcar]

Type 2s are surely the lightning rod for responces. Damn iconic mass appeal.

Miss the 914. Yes Bleyseng, so off most radar.Likewise,driving its watercooled,front engine/transaxled successor from 1986, anonymous. But it's ok, all good experiences for the driver.

I think a Myata is a fun way to contrast and compare. Nice opportunity!

[Amskeptic]

Type 2s are surely the lightning rod for responces. Damn iconic mass appeal.

Miss the 914.

That small children have a ubiquitous reaction to the bus tells me that far deeper forces are at work than "damn iconic mass appeal". We can go there with a beer.

The 914, the "VoPo" is only worth a damn to me if it is in utterly magnificent condition. It truly was a cynically-produced car, wonderful engineering traces, yes, but a parts bin amalgamation nonetheless.
I have had to conclude that so many wannabe sportscar gibbons have had their way with these cars, that I may never drive another that doesn't feel clapped out. (true for the BMW 2002 too)
Colin

[Bleyseng]

" but a parts bin amalgamation nonetheless."
As in there are a few 411/412 parts on a 914 (front brakes) and the 1.7L engine? Everything else in a 914 *** *** or 039 *** *** which is the 914 2.0L parts code. That's why 914's have always been a expensive car to maintain as they are Porsche parts with limited supply. Most restored 914's today are parts sourced off several other parts cars....Porsche Classic makes and supports some parts but look out $$$$$.
The abundance of NOS or new parts for buses and VW's amazes me. The lack of type 4 engine parts by VW has been answered by the aftermarket suppliers thank god.

[whc03grady]

That small children have a ubiquitous reaction to the bus tells me that far deeper forces are at work than "damn iconic mass appeal". We can go there with a beer.

Not that I'm opposed to beer drinking, but do we really need one for this? The forces at work are that the bus has an honest-to-god face, and that the human brain, especially the child brain, is very much wired to try to find faces. (To a lesser extent, they recognize it as Fillmore from Cars.) I'm willing to bet they'd go for Austin-Healey Sprites in the same way.

[Amskeptic]

That small children have a ubiquitous reaction to the bus tells me that far deeper forces are at work than "damn iconic mass appeal". We can go there with a beer.

Not that I'm opposed to beer drinking, but do we really need one for this? The forces at work are that the bus has an honest-to-god face, and that the human brain, especially the child brain, is very much wired to try to find faces. (To a lesser extent, they recognize it as Fillmore from Cars.) I'm willing to bet they'd go for Austin-Healey Sprites in the same way.

I have seen kids flip out over them from the side and rear, too.

You got one word in there that I think is part of it. Honest. I think little kids recognize honest design in a world of tricky aero stylin flimflam blingaling and intuitively spot it with their pattern-seeking contrast wiring.
Colin

[ruckman101]

Bertha certainly has an honest patina. She wears her dents honestly and I feel with a bit of pride. Lumps of life. Of course that transcends honest design. And of course, the lines of a bus have always transcended the lines of any other "van" and have been unique, never blending into a crowd of anything but other busses.

neal

[Jivermo]

I have three young grandchildren, two girls and one boy, and every one of them has stared at the bus from a very young age. One of my grandson's first five words was "bus". He comes over to the house, and points out the backdoor, and says, "bus", and indicates that I need to take him out to it. He wants to climb inside, and just "be", with the bus. Last summer, as I was driving through the Catskills, I pulled up to a traffic light by a Orthodox Jewish day care center. The children noticed the bus immediately, and ran to the fence, jumping up and down, waving, yelling and pointing. It was quite a sight, and my wife was laughing and shaking her head..."These things are just too much!", she said.
She's right, they are just too much.

[weisswurst]

I have three young grandchildren, two girls and one boy, and every one of them has stared at the bus from a very young age. One of my grandson's first five words was "bus". He comes over to the house, and points out the backdoor, and says, "bus", and indicates that I need to take him out to it. He wants to climb inside, and just "be", with the bus. Last summer, as I was driving through the Catskills, I pulled up to a traffic light by a Orthodox Jewish day care center. The children noticed the bus immediately, and ran to the fence, jumping up and down, waving, yelling and pointing. It was quite a sight, and my wife was laughing and shaking her head..."These things are just too much!", she said.
She's right, they are just too much.

My son always asks no matter how hot it is here in Florida "can we take one of the wursts?" (most of our VW have German food names like Currywurst, Weisswurst, ect...)
His school friends descend on them like it's a playground swing set too!
Kids just love VW's it seems! Yes that's my boy in the driver's seat!
jeff

[Bleyseng]

Haha, these tales are funny but cool. I get swarmed by Japanese tourists if I go to the Pike Place Market in the Ghia. They lay on the hood and pose for goofy pictures and laugh. The 914 gets swarmed by old guys that want to talk about the old days when they had one. If I take the west young guys want to know if I'll sell it.....

[airkooledchris]

id say that my love for our busses has helped me love other vehicles in ways I wouldn't have previously... I may not love them AS much, but I have a much stronger appreciation for what they are and what they can do with a little love.

a few months back I picked up an 89 Honda Civic, a base model with zero options selected. 189k miles on the clock so far, and all it needed was tires. (it now owes me $1200 worth of use, or future sale price.)

it's such a simple machine, but it does everything it's supposed to and then some. ive filled it with gas twice now, and have ran it hard for 200+ miles of all in-town short distance start/stop driving - and it happily gave me 26 MPG while doing so.

I picked it up just to have some wheels while I tackle some larger projects on the bus, but the thing is growing on me day after day. It looks ridiculous to have a man of my girth getting in and out of this tiny car, but I couldn't be happier with it's emerging spirit.

thankfully it was kept out of the hands of teenagers it's whole life, so other than some 20 year old bubbled up tint that needed to be removed, it's in really nice shape.

.... but nobody has flashed me the peace sign, nobody has stopped me at a gas station to talk about their past vehicle history, and nobody wants to take a picture next to it. and that's ok, it doesn't mind, it just does it's job and eagerly awaits it's next assignment. you can feel it run/drive better day after day of regular use, which im convinced is what most older machines crave when kept in proper tune.

[Amskeptic]

Honda Civic just does it's job and eagerly awaits it's next assignment.

That's my Lexus too. Bygone era now nondescript used car, but its engineering doesn't know that its day in the sun has gone. I ain't telling it neither.
Colin