Henry Rifle Forums

When my wife and I first married, we then drove a blue VW Bug we named "Himbie." It was joined by an a tan VW Bug a couple of years later (never had a name for that one). Two daughters then "inherited" these stick-on-the-floor sports jobs.

I've arrived at a full circle this late summer. I traded in my 2005 Chrysler T/C Touring mini-van on a 4-year old VW Beetle. I'm really hoping the dealership will sell the van to someone, who needs the pneumatic handicap chair lift I had in the back, accessible by the rear door. It was a really helpful tool for transporting a power chair. And the Chrysler van is still in great shape with a most comfortable ride.

Anyway, the Beetle's color is called "reef blue," and it has a 4-cylinder turbo engine, and dressed out with kind of fancy sport wheels. It is a base-model in the Beetle line, although it doesn't quite look like it. What I particularly like is that a number of the instrument switches (e.g. temp control, fan, floor heat, vent heat, A/C, radio, etc.) all have manual controls. Very little digital stuff, which is my speed! It is a 2013 car with only 30,000 miles driven so far. Thought I got a fair deal on my van/lift trade-in, so I went for it.

So far I have really enjoyed driving this new-to-me car.....lots of fun and handles really well. BTW, the gas mileage is a significant improvement over the van. Rather than the 16-17 miles/gallon on the van, I'm getting a little over 32 miles/gallon with the Beetle. Not too shabby, although I don't drive a tremendous amount these days. Still, every penny saved is good.

Posting a few pictures of my new blue turbo. Maybe I'm showing off my "late-life-crisis."
Have a great holiday weekend, Everyone!

PT7's 2013 VW Turbo Beetle

Uh huh! And your new forum name will be "It's Turbo Time!"

Looks great! Enjoy!!

Very pretty color and cool car, PT.

Looks to be fun to drive, I'm sure.................

Turbos will put a smile on your face. I have 2 of them under the hood of my F150. Nice color PT and enjoy. Dont forget to wake up that turbo every now and then. Al

BigAl, thanks. I like that "reef blue" color a lot. OK, I never drove a turbo before, and have already "wakened" it up a few times! After the surprise, yes, a smile happened!

The turbo awakens quite wide-eyed and bushy-tailed as the road in the rear view mirror rapidly recedes. Also found out I need to behave with it, too.....KCMO cruisers and radar abound in my area!

BigAl52 wrote:Turbos will put a smile on your face. I have 2 of them under the hood of my F150. Nice color PT and enjoy. Dont forget to wake up that turbo every now and then. Al

Great looking Beetle PT7! It looks to be in perfect condition and well taken care of. I have a special feeling for VW beetles both old and new. My wife and I.... both had VW Beetles as first our first cars. I've had many older ones over the years. Congrats on your purchase.
Dale - AZ

Nice little car, sharp looking and I like that color too.
Enjoy it. Are your kids giving you grief about your "turbo sports car?"

Thanks, Marine. The kids have been good with my new wheels. No grief....just some raised eyebrows over a wide grin!!

BrokenolMarine wrote:Nice little car, sharp looking and I like that color too.
Enjoy it. Are your kids giving you grief about your "turbo sports car?"

PT7, I like that Beetle. It sure doesn't look base model, as you stated. It looks very nice. I like the rims.

As Al said, you need to kick the turbos once in a while. I'll bet that turbo gets that Beetle moving in a hurry. Two of them get my F150 up off it's knees in a hurry.

Enjoy your ride. It looks fun.

Thanks, DD.
Been using the turbo for passing. It really does the job quite well.
And I actually feel the "push" back into the seat as Old Blue scurries forward.
Sure is a lot different from the Bugs I drove back in the 80s, or my Dad's Bug eons ago in the 60s!

I've found that I like this car a lot, and I've been surprised just how much fun it is to drive. Didn't expect that; just thought I traded my T&C van in for a plain-Jane Beetle. Another surprise is that a number of folk have chatted with me when I've been at the gas pump, and complimented me on this "sharp-looking car." Mostly they find it hard to believe that it isn't new, but four years old. The first owner sure did a good job maintaining it, and also looking nice.

As long as it keeps on running well for me, it is definitely a keeper.

daytime dave wrote:PT7, I like that Beetle. It sure doesn't look base model, as you stated. It looks very nice. I like the rims.

As Al said, you need to kick the turbos once in a while. I'll bet that turbo gets that Beetle moving in a hurry. Two of them get my F150 up off it's knees in a hurry.

Enjoy your ride. It looks fun.

PT7,

It's amazing how many folks don't realize or don't care what a difference a little effort can make in the long view with a vehicle. We have always taken good care of ours. Traded in a Forester with 240,000 miles on the clock, and it still looked new. It sold while we were still finishing up the paperwork on the new truck. We still get compliments on the 2010 Titan. Folks can't believe it's got more than 60k miles on it. A little effort pays you back. That little vw sure doesn't look four years old.

Absolutely right, Marine. It doesn't take much at all to keep a vehicle looking in top shape -- and even clean & maintained under the hood! The first owner of this VW knew that, too. Anyway, I think it helped this time that I had a cared-for vehicle to trade in.

Although nowhere near as sporty looking as this VW, the Chrysler T&C mini-van I traded in still looked sharp. Most folk didn't believe it was 12 years old with 140,000 miles. If it wasn't for the handicapped power chair lift I had in it to transport my wife's chair, I would have kept driving it. It looked great and ran quite well. But I traded (hopefully) to get the handicapped equipment out there for someone else to use.

I love your turbo Bug
I drove this everyday [ weather permitting ] to work . I owned it for 7 yrs and never broke down .