7 ms·

VW Beetle Owner's Manual (1970)

40 points by Hooke 11y ago

taylodl 11y ago
This reminded me of the Commodore 64 User's Guide ( http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_guide.htm http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_gu...) in that they both assume the user is very knowledgable of what's going on under the hood.
- CamTin 11y ago
  Both are phenomenally successful products. I wonder if this openness was a part of that success.
- Someone 11y ago
  The Apple II reference manual beats that (https://archive.org/details/applerefjan78 https://archive.org/details/applerefjan78). It includes the disassembly of the monitor program and contains full schematics and timing diagrams.
- exodust 11y ago
  I remember as a kid reading the simulated dice roll chapter in the C64 manual. I thought that if I copied the code I would actually get an animated dice rolling. I felt let down when it turned out to be a table of numbers.
baseballmerpeak 11y ago
If the reader had a dollar for every mention of an Authorized VW Dealer, they could readily afford said dealer's service for every mentioned scenario in the manual.
jonjacky 11y ago
A related artifact from that era, the very popular DIY repair manual: How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot by John Muir and Peter Aschwanden. I see it's still in print. This video shows some of the wonderful artwork: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjeth7lhHSk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjeth7lhHSk
- NDizzle 11y ago
  I had that book and used it extensively. I think I went through three copies of it due to use and me destroying it with my filthy hands. I had a 70.5 baja bug from age 14 until 21. I lived 8 miles from a town of 3,000 in Arkansas, and later moved even further out until it was 16 miles to town. I drove myself, two brothers, and a sister to school in that thing for 4 years. (93-97) Well, I say 4 years, but anyone who has owned an air cooled VW knows how often we had to take the bus. Walking ~2 miles down a dirt road to the highway bus stop isn't much fun. I'd probably do it all over again, too. Specifically because of that air cooled monstrosity I can fix anything, or at least I think I can. Fearless, if you will. I'd do it again for my kids if it wasn't for the fact that there are teenagers driving 400 HP Mustang 5.0s and Ford Excursions can be had used for $5,000. An air cooled VW is a death wish on today's roads.
- bch 11y ago
  That book is such a masterpiece of technical writing I've recommended it to people who don't even own VWs. It deserves to be recognized in the same discussions as The C Programming Language, Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, and the 1st ed. of Tcl and the Tk Toolkit.
- pistle 11y ago
  99.5% necessary accessory for any bug/bus owner. They need non-trivial tuning about every 3k-5k to keep them running well order compared to what we have today. The lifters need adjusting, fuel filter replacement, etc. about as often as most people get an oil change. They don't have A/C. The heat carries with it exhaust stink and is nearly useless anywhere northeast or midwest. They rust easy, are very unsafe by today's standards, hydroplane like mad (though rear-wheel-drive is fun), and the motors on the wipers either creep slowly or sweep slowly. They are light and tall, so they are like sails when you have cross winds. They can barely maintain speed up long ascents... But that book is an amazing piece of craft.
  - WalterBright 11y ago
    My dad's VW bus was a challenge to drive in the Midwest in a crosswind. Going in and out of cuts meant the bus would veer from side to side. Had to be very careful not to wind up in oncoming traffic, or in the ditch. I see a lot of nostalgia for those machines, but I was glad to be rid of it. They're noisy, uncomfortable, the heater is a joke, windshield defroster never works, and dangerous.
batou 11y ago
Compare to the Fiat Doblo Owner's Manual, which happens to be "Doblo eLEARN technical manual" because the effing thing breaks every 2 minutes... I long for a simple vehicle again.
jritorto 11y ago
Elon, please buy the production rights to this and put it back into production, exactly as it was, no changes, bolt-compatible with the original. Interestingly, they had prototyped an add-on electric powerplant back then, too, which, sadly, never made it into production.
- pravda 11y ago
  I don't think it would pass emissions. Interestingly (?), Dr. Porsche 'borrowed' the design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_97 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_97
  - WalterBright 11y ago
    It wouldn't pass the crash testing, either. Bugs fared poorly in crashes. The idea was that it was nimbler, and better able to avoid accidents to make up for that. Bugs also were relatively high maintenance. Few would care for that these days.
  - jshufro 11y ago
    The first Porsche was basically a clone of the Type III fastback: http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/957632.jpg http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/957632.jpg
    - dchuk 11y ago
      The first Porsche predates the Type III by quite a few years. Also, Ferdinand Porsche designed the original Beetle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche#Relationship_with_Volkswagen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche#Relationship_with_Volk...
  - walshemj 11y ago
    James may did an interesting show about classic cars recently and drove one the surviving beetle protypes.
- KamiCrit 11y ago
  The Tesla Beetle, if they made that it might beat out the Model T sales count!
mixmastamyk 11y ago
My mom had one of these 1970 bugs, navy blue, and I spent much of my childhood years in the back seat. Good memories.
- XJOKOLAT 11y ago
  Memories ... it was my grandfathers favourite car ... the one I would see in his garage when we would stay with him for summer holidays ... the one he would take us on summer day trips in ... These things don't run on petrol or service history ... they run on memory and nostalgia. Gold.
ilamont 11y ago
My mom had a purple VW bug. I'll never forget the sound of the engine and how hot it got in that thing (I heard somewhere it was sealed so tight it the passenger compartment wouldn't flood if it drove into water). It got rear-ended while parked in front of our house in the mid-1970s. My mother cried; she loved that bug.
- exodust 11y ago
  I crashed my girlfriend's VW back in the mid 90s. I hit a parked car that had stopped on a blind corner to observe a previous accident that happened minutes before. It was raining. I came around the corner and applied the brakes. 1975 VW's don't stop too well on wet roads. The 'funny' part was that the damage was confined to the front headlight and panel. Not too bad. But the quoted cost of repair was more than the car was worth.
dkresge 11y ago
Clicked random page and was truly rewarded. 3 - Spare wheel It also provides the air supply for the windshield washer container. Therefore the spare tire pressure should occasionally be checked and increased to 42 psi. We had a VW something when I was growing up. I remember a heater that would run even when the engine was off. But I don't remember this. Fahrvergnügen!

40 points by Hooke 11y ago

This reminded me of the Commodore 64 User's Guide ( http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_guide.htm http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_gu...) in that they both assume the user is very knowledgable of what's going on under the hood.

CamTin 11y ago
Both are phenomenally successful products. I wonder if this openness was a part of that success.
Someone 11y ago
The Apple II reference manual beats that (https://archive.org/details/applerefjan78 https://archive.org/details/applerefjan78). It includes the disassembly of the monitor program and contains full schematics and timing diagrams.
exodust 11y ago
I remember as a kid reading the simulated dice roll chapter in the C64 manual. I thought that if I copied the code I would actually get an animated dice rolling. I felt let down when it turned out to be a table of numbers.

baseballmerpeak 11y ago

If the reader had a dollar for every mention of an Authorized VW Dealer, they could readily afford said dealer's service for every mentioned scenario in the manual.

jonjacky 11y ago

A related artifact from that era, the very popular DIY repair manual: How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot by John Muir and Peter Aschwanden. I see it's still in print. This video shows some of the wonderful artwork: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjeth7lhHSk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjeth7lhHSk

NDizzle 11y ago
I had that book and used it extensively. I think I went through three copies of it due to use and me destroying it with my filthy hands. I had a 70.5 baja bug from age 14 until 21. I lived 8 miles from a town of 3,000 in Arkansas, and later moved even further out until it was 16 miles to town. I drove myself, two brothers, and a sister to school in that thing for 4 years. (93-97) Well, I say 4 years, but anyone who has owned an air cooled VW knows how often we had to take the bus. Walking ~2 miles down a dirt road to the highway bus stop isn't much fun. I'd probably do it all over again, too. Specifically because of that air cooled monstrosity I can fix anything, or at least I think I can. Fearless, if you will. I'd do it again for my kids if it wasn't for the fact that there are teenagers driving 400 HP Mustang 5.0s and Ford Excursions can be had used for $5,000. An air cooled VW is a death wish on today's roads.
bch 11y ago
That book is such a masterpiece of technical writing I've recommended it to people who don't even own VWs. It deserves to be recognized in the same discussions as The C Programming Language, Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, and the 1st ed. of Tcl and the Tk Toolkit.
pistle 11y ago
99.5% necessary accessory for any bug/bus owner. They need non-trivial tuning about every 3k-5k to keep them running well order compared to what we have today. The lifters need adjusting, fuel filter replacement, etc. about as often as most people get an oil change. They don't have A/C. The heat carries with it exhaust stink and is nearly useless anywhere northeast or midwest. They rust easy, are very unsafe by today's standards, hydroplane like mad (though rear-wheel-drive is fun), and the motors on the wipers either creep slowly or sweep slowly. They are light and tall, so they are like sails when you have cross winds. They can barely maintain speed up long ascents... But that book is an amazing piece of craft.
- WalterBright 11y ago
  My dad's VW bus was a challenge to drive in the Midwest in a crosswind. Going in and out of cuts meant the bus would veer from side to side. Had to be very careful not to wind up in oncoming traffic, or in the ditch. I see a lot of nostalgia for those machines, but I was glad to be rid of it. They're noisy, uncomfortable, the heater is a joke, windshield defroster never works, and dangerous.

batou 11y ago

Compare to the Fiat Doblo Owner's Manual, which happens to be "Doblo eLEARN technical manual" because the effing thing breaks every 2 minutes... I long for a simple vehicle again.

jritorto 11y ago

Elon, please buy the production rights to this and put it back into production, exactly as it was, no changes, bolt-compatible with the original. Interestingly, they had prototyped an add-on electric powerplant back then, too, which, sadly, never made it into production.

pravda 11y ago
I don't think it would pass emissions. Interestingly (?), Dr. Porsche 'borrowed' the design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_97 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_97
- WalterBright 11y ago
  It wouldn't pass the crash testing, either. Bugs fared poorly in crashes. The idea was that it was nimbler, and better able to avoid accidents to make up for that. Bugs also were relatively high maintenance. Few would care for that these days.
- jshufro 11y ago
  The first Porsche was basically a clone of the Type III fastback: http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/957632.jpg http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/957632.jpg
  - dchuk 11y ago
    The first Porsche predates the Type III by quite a few years. Also, Ferdinand Porsche designed the original Beetle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche#Relationship_with_Volkswagen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche#Relationship_with_Volk...
- walshemj 11y ago
  James may did an interesting show about classic cars recently and drove one the surviving beetle protypes.
KamiCrit 11y ago
The Tesla Beetle, if they made that it might beat out the Model T sales count!

mixmastamyk 11y ago

My mom had one of these 1970 bugs, navy blue, and I spent much of my childhood years in the back seat. Good memories.

XJOKOLAT 11y ago
Memories ... it was my grandfathers favourite car ... the one I would see in his garage when we would stay with him for summer holidays ... the one he would take us on summer day trips in ... These things don't run on petrol or service history ... they run on memory and nostalgia. Gold.

ilamont 11y ago

My mom had a purple VW bug. I'll never forget the sound of the engine and how hot it got in that thing (I heard somewhere it was sealed so tight it the passenger compartment wouldn't flood if it drove into water). It got rear-ended while parked in front of our house in the mid-1970s. My mother cried; she loved that bug.

exodust 11y ago
I crashed my girlfriend's VW back in the mid 90s. I hit a parked car that had stopped on a blind corner to observe a previous accident that happened minutes before. It was raining. I came around the corner and applied the brakes. 1975 VW's don't stop too well on wet roads. The 'funny' part was that the damage was confined to the front headlight and panel. Not too bad. But the quoted cost of repair was more than the car was worth.

dkresge 11y ago

Clicked random page and was truly rewarded. 3 - Spare wheel It also provides the air supply for the windshield washer container. Therefore the spare tire pressure should occasionally be checked and increased to 42 psi. We had a VW something when I was growing up. I remember a heater that would run even when the engine was off. But I don't remember this. Fahrvergnügen!