Beetles and Bikes Part 3 - The Blue Bug
The sunroof was different from the one on the Gray Bug. This one had to be stretched backwards and forwards manually. It also didn't have a gas gauge. I put a strip of tape over the odometer and penciled in the mileage where we should begin looking for gas. It did have a unique feature -- a lever above the accelerator that controlled a reserve gas tank. If you were driving down the road and all of a sudden the engine started sputtering, you lifted your foot up and gave the lever a good kick. That opened the reserve tank and the engine would come back to life in a few seconds. Well, one day I got a frantic call from my wife who had taken the car up to the grocery store. The car had stalled about a quarter of a mile from our house on a major highway. She couldn't get it going. She walked to the nearest phone and called me -- this was way before cellphones. I got in the Dodge Dart and headed over to the spot where she was parked on the side of the road. I got in, kicked the lever, and started the engine. It ran perfectly. My wife just couldn't get the technique of kicking that lever. I think the only thing I did to the car other than a tune-up was a new set of tires. It ran flawlessly for two years. We decided to trade it in on a Chevy Station wagon to accommodate our three kids. Somehow, the original owner of the Blue Bug heard we had traded it in and immediately called the dealer and bought it back. He may still be driving it. Now, Read Part 4 to see how a new White Bug would arrive on the scene and challenge my relationship with my three teenage kids as they learned to drive it.
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© 2016 Walter F. Kern. All rights reserved.
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Since our family was growing, we bought a 1965 Dodge Dart after the Gray Bug died. We had it about three years when my daughter was born and we needed to get a second car. A friend at work had a 1960 Blue Bug that also had a sunroof. It ran well so I bought it.
