VOLKSWAGEN VW BUG FUEL EFFICIENCY TEST DRIVE GAS CRISIS FILM 33504

[@tom7601]

It was always interesting when you forgot to flip the reserve handle back to the main position. There was a joke about a woman complaining about poor gas mileage. The dealer checked it out and couldn't find anything wrong. A week or two later, she brought it back, same complaint. The mechanic hade her take him for a ride. When she got in, she closed the door, then pulled out the choke knob and hung her purse on it. The got her squared away. She had mentioned the German engineering, they even provided a purse hanger. No one at the dealer had put two and two together.

[@warrenbuchanan8602]

in regards to wondering what year the video was made, well whatever year model the beetle is the test was probably made no more then two years later then that. because they probably wanted somewhat accurate mpg figures and therefore used a car that didnt have a lot of miles on it. and the others cars on the street in the video , whatever car is the newest, that is probably also the year that the video was made , because , with the amount of other cars shown in the video, at least one of them was probably new or almost new

[@Richard_K1630]

42 MPG. That's the best I ever got from my Golf TDI. Now I get about 30 in my '17 Jetta. I still love VWs.

[@bradjohnston8193]

My record in a Normally Aspirated Rabbit Diesel was 56. I lived in the Rocky Mountains then. On flat ground, my record was 52.

[@RickSienkiewicz]

The beetle got 42.6 mpg! Another reason to get one!

[@bradjohnston8193]

Lots of early '50s cars, and one glimpse of a 1949 Cadillac Sedanette. The newest car I saw was a 1958 Cadillac. This area was rural, so NEW cars would not have been in abundance. The bug has a big rear window, and that was first used in 1959. The speedometer only went to 80, and the 90 MPH speedometer came along in the early '60s. If I had to guess, I'd say 1959 or 1960. I would pay real money to have that very Beetle!!

[@65bug519]

a 30 horser not gonna set the world on fire but it beats walkin

[@raygiordano1045]

This film title reminds me of a joke my dad played on his friend who bought a VW and was always bragging about how much mileage he was getting from his VW. So my dad started to secretly add gas to his tank causing the guy to rave about the incredible fuel efficiency of his VW, until my dad started siphoning a little gas from the tank.

[@chaplainmattsanders4884]

Ray Giordano . Hilarious.

[@graphene1487]

Your dad is a sly fox Ray lol

[@raygiordano1045]

@@graphene1487 he was, I miss him more than I could ever imagine.

[@bradjohnston8193]

They did that for a '50s Mopar that Sergeant Carter sold to Gomer Pyle, and Sergeant Hacker kept dumping gas in it at night until Gomer thought he was getting 45 MPG out of a big-finned Dodge. He was really getting 11.

[@rollymartin]

Regarding the gas volume, at about 13 minutes I believe the emergency reserve cup is turned over using the lever to the right. The car did not have a gas gauge, so that reserve was provided. My parents' first VW was a 1962 (40hp) and its taillights were larger, so this model predates 1962. From the look of the other US-built vehicles, it might be circa 1959, 1960? The distinctive smell was leather and I understood that beeswax was used for waterproofing. They were all airtight. One disadvantage in Canadian (Montreal) weather was the lack of a fan for windshield defrosting and heat! The rear-mounted air-cooled engine had no coolant, so the heating and defrosting was dependent on rear intakes pushing warm air forward through ducts. It was necessary to use 'frost shields' on the side and back windows ... and a small inside scraper in very cold weather for the windshield e.g. minus 20 deg F. Frost shields were thin plastic blisters (with adhesive around the edge) 1-2 feet by about 6-9 inches (various sizes were available) which were affixed to the inside of essential-for-safety glass surfaces. Air trapped in the thin space between the inner plastic blister and the glass prevented water vapour from the passengers' breath from frosting the glass surface. These blisters were thin enough that it was possible to raise and lower the front windows. Ours used spare tire air pressure for winshield washer fluid pressure. As primitive as all this sounds, the cars were ingenious in design, cheap and very dependable.

[@PeriscopeFilm]

Interesting insights. So how many gallons do you think the fuel tank plus reserve hold? It would be interesting to figure out the MPG of this model.

[@bigears4426]

PeriscopeFilm 40 litres

[@bigears4426]

This was still the 36hp my car would average close to 40mpg with a light load and good running , the best it got was 52mpg and worst would be 30mpg

[@7CAJONEZ]

Never seen one with trip odometer

[@b374mxg]

No sound?

[@PeriscopeFilm]

It's a silent film. Possibly someone presented it at a lecture and spoke while it ran.

[@20alphabet]

One of these with the 1600 engine could get 40mpg. Of course, the later German built Ford Fiesta MK1 designed by Colin Chapman of Lotus fame with its own Kent 1600 engine could get over 45mpg and do 0-60 in 8 seconds... something the stock bug could never dream of.

[@gotham61]

Huh? I owned a Mk1 Fiesta. Colin Chapman had nothing to do with it. No Fiesta ever got even close to 8 seconds 0-60, or 45 MPG.

[@motorhead6763]

A car designed by Hitler. Terrible car. Broke down no heat to small no power fuel tank in your lap... Even today German cars junk. Our shop exclusively fixes euro trash cars. Way over priced expensive to fix. My Chevies all have over 250k miles few issues. Buy American!

[@james7420]

Hitler didn't design the Bug. He just liked them and endorsed them. Even being the Madman he was.

[@whatsstefon]

Hitler didn’t design them. Terrible car, yet iconic and loved by man. No heat? Yours must have had the heat exchangers replaced with J-tubes. Fuel tank in your lap. Lol. Today, all cars are junk. My beetle has 245,000 km and still going strong.

[@bigears4426]

Well in the late fifties many American cars had no heater only one sunvisor , shit brakes average fuel consumption, and that's the way it was for cheap cars . American prestige cars just like prestige cars from europe were too expensive

[@lawrencerasmus]

Chevy my ass , you ain't ever has a POS astro van . Even back in 1958 Chevys 348 V8 burnt oil like a oil heater. I did love the 327

[@ericknoblauch9195]

Mother had a 1965 Volkswagen that never broke down, and a lot of miles were put on it for the 27 years it was in our family. When it was sold it looked beat, and had lots of patina on the paint. The body was beat for all the miles that were put on it. Some of it was road rash from going up and down the highways for all those years. When she bought it in 1967 from a Volkswagen dealer for $1,750.00 it had 37,000 miles. 27 years later when it was sold, it fetched $1,500.00, and the odometer had rolled over several times. A family friend who also had a 1956 Beetle put over 1,000,000 miles on the clock. The Volkswagen was not a unreliable vehicle that broke down. The VW was made to handle anything including the Sahara Desert. The Beetle was one of the longest cars in production ever from 1938 to 2003, and it took the title as the best selling car of all time away from Ford in 1972. There were more than 22 million Beetles produced, and some 12 million Transporter busses were made.