Memories in a VW

[Aidy P]

I'm starting this thread to counter that other VW thread (don't shoot me down please). What are your happiest memories in a VW?

My dad isn't alive anymore and I've got very fond memories of him in his fifties when he got his hands on an old Golf GTI and did it up. He loved that car. I found an old GTI Club sticker in one of his books a few weeks ago and stuck it on my T2. He drove me round the Lincolnshire Wolds In that car with a beaming smile on his face like a kid at Christmas.

When I met my wife as a student she had a beat up old VW Polo. The times I had to bump start that old car! But we'd always been somewhere fun.

We brought our baby daughter home in the back of a Golf. I remember looking at her in the rear view mirror and my heart melting thinking it's going to be a long time before that back seat is empty again! Even the time when my wife accidentally locked the baby in that car makes the four of us laugh now (it wasn't funny at the time!)

Looking at my little girls looking down from the roof of our T2 with the biggest smiles on their faces and their hair dangling below them the first & then many times we went camping is simply priceless.

And now we've got a California on order because we want something a bit safer, more comfortable and that can go further and faster than the T2. We've already got two big trips planned in it. One of those will be our first road trip abroad next summer. I'm like a kid at Christmas now waiting.

 

[calikev]

Good memories there. I don't think there would be enough room on the forum to write about all the vw's I have had and the memories. Some good some not so. Enjoy your new cali

I probably have forgotten some.
4 x VW type 2's. Devon , Danbury x2. westafalia.
VW rabbit gti LHD
Vwgolf gti mk1 1979 1600cc 4 speed lol
VW golf gti mk 2
VW golf gti mk 3
Beetle 1303
Beetle 1200
Polo
Jetta mk1
Jetta 16 v
VW type 25 camper
VW transporter T5 elite conversion
VW california

 

[Hotel California]

Good point , seems a lot here are only thinking negative , just live you life as it comes ....all in all the good memories will survive

As Kev edited his post above ....what a list!
I can only say my 2012 SE 140bh DSG is my only VW so far but already having lots of good memories in it!

 

[JohnnyP]

I'm starting this thread to counter that other VW thread (don't shoot me down please). What are your happiest memories in a VW?

My dad isn't alive anymore and I've got very fond memories of him in his fifties when he got his hands on an old Golf GTI and did it up. He loved that car. I found an old GTI Club sticker in one of his books a few weeks ago and stuck it on my T2. He drove me round the Lincolnshire Wolds In that car with a beaming smile on his face like a kid at Christmas.

When I met my wife as a student she had a beat up old VW Polo. The times I had to bump start that old car! But we'd always been somewhere fun.

We brought our baby daughter home in the back of a Golf. I remember looking at her in the rear view mirror and my heart melting thinking it's going to be a long time before that back seat is empty again! Even the time when my wife accidentally locked the baby in that car makes the four of us laugh now (it wasn't funny at the time!)

Looking at my little girls looking down from the roof of our T2 with the biggest smiles on their faces and their hair dangling below them the first & then many times we went camping is simply priceless.

And now we've got a California on order because we want something a bit safer, more comfortable and that can go further and faster than the T2. We've already got two big trips planned in it. One of those will be our first road trip abroad next summer. I'm like a kid at Christmas now waiting.

In the mid seventies my Dad had 2 beetles, an older red beetle (dont know which marque) which he was always fixing and a newer white beetle (70s model). We lived abroad at the time and beetles were popular cars because the relatively big wheels were good for the bad roads. I was about 5yo and playing garages with a friend using the white beetle as a prop when I decided to add a bit more realism to the game. I must have seen my Dad refuel at a garage and I was going to copy him and put some fuel in, obviously we didn't have a fuel pump on the drive but we did have a hose reel which I proceeded to use as a present pump. My next memory having that feeling of being told off but not fully understanding why while watching my Dad siphoning the fuel tank.

 

[Meoncoast]

I continue to enjoy our Cali. I have found childhood memories of my dads split screen and VW which includes breakdowns tours of the UK and down to the South of France. I now have stopped reading all posts on the forum as I found where it in the early days of my Cali ownership informative and helpful I now find there are too many negative moans and groans. Not enough posts about "camper van" trips not enough "campsite" feedback. This week our millage reached the same number as the £s paid so over the the past 3 year so now the van has cost a £1 per mile to buy. Each week I enjoy the camper van more but sorry to say the forum less.
+1 for positive camping adventures. I am a half full person rather than a have empty one.

 

[Meoncoast]

Say no more

 

[GrannyJen]

My early memories are seething with jealousy as my Sister took her two children to the South of France for a fortnight in their T2 whilst I had to scrounge whatever tent I could to take my two children to Devon for a week!

However something that will live with me for ever was waking up on a bleak part of the Wester Ross Coast, waking up after the most fitful night's sleep, disturbed as "the storm of the century" roared in with 100mph winds, and gazing out at the Summer Islands, glowing in watery sunshine, after the roar of the tempest so the calm of it's passing, nature putting itself back together again.

A camper gets you back to nature if you let it, and after that unforgettable storm I was glad that the camper I was in was a Cali.

 

[Aidy P]

View attachment 10274

Say no more

Great photos!!!

 

[James H]

Like Andy (Meoncoast) I too have childhood memories, surprised my strict Dad let me and my older brother

stand on the bumper though !

 

[Borris]

I'm starting this thread to counter that other VW thread (don't shoot me down please). What are your happiest memories in a VW?

My dad isn't alive anymore and I've got very fond memories of him in his fifties when he got his hands on an old Golf GTI and did it up. He loved that car. I found an old GTI Club sticker in one of his books a few weeks ago and stuck it on my T2. He drove me round the Lincolnshire Wolds In that car with a beaming smile on his face like a kid at Christmas.

When I met my wife as a student she had a beat up old VW Polo. The times I had to bump start that old car! But we'd always been somewhere fun.

We brought our baby daughter home in the back of a Golf. I remember looking at her in the rear view mirror and my heart melting thinking it's going to be a long time before that back seat is empty again! Even the time when my wife accidentally locked the baby in that car makes the four of us laugh now (it wasn't funny at the time!)

Looking at my little girls looking down from the roof of our T2 with the biggest smiles on their faces and their hair dangling below them the first & then many times we went camping is simply priceless.

And now we've got a California on order because we want something a bit safer, more comfortable and that can go further and faster than the T2. We've already got two big trips planned in it. One of those will be our first road trip abroad next summer. I'm like a kid at Christmas now waiting.

Hi Aidy,
Brilliant idea and I thought your post was one of the best that I have read.

 

[Larkrise]

Our first VW was a 1300 Beetle in the '70s. On the day we picked it up (we lived in Rossendale) we drove from Bacup to Todmorden and back. Unfortunately we hadn't noticed the fuel gauge knocking on empty and we ran out as we crossed the hills on the way back. However we were really lucky and were able to roll back down all the way to Bacup to get fuel. That was the first of many times we ran out as we never could afford to put much petrol in at a time. One other interesting memory of the Beetle- to this day I still have four junior hacksaws. Why? Because we were always locking the keys in the ignition and kept having to go and buy one to saw the quarter light rivet off to get a hand in for the keys!

 

[Aidy P]

Hi Aidy,
Brilliant idea and I thought your post was one of the best that I have read.

Thanks Borris. Just think of the history you'll be writing now you've got your new van

 

[Aidy P]

Our first VW was a 1300 Beetle in the '70s. On the day we picked it up (we lived in Rossendale) we drove from Bacup to Todmorden and back. Unfortunately we hadn't noticed the fuel gauge knocking on empty and we ran out as we crossed the hills on the way back. However we were really lucky and were able to roll back down all the way to Bacup to get fuel. That was the first of many times we ran out as we never could afford to put much petrol in at a time. One other interesting memory of the Beetle- to this day I still have four junior hacksaws. Why? Because we were always locking the keys in the ignition and kept having to go and buy one to saw the quarter light rivet off to get a hand in for the keys!

Any photos of the old Beetle Larkrise?

 

[Meoncoast]

Another memory was the van getting a flat and needing replacement battery in Devon no spare cash and before credit cards Dad had to phone family who wired down cash to,local post office to buy replacement battery. Another holiday a broken clutch cable as we drove buy a VW garage which we rolled into. Camper van ownership has always been an adventure.

 

[LindaF]

Same as Hotel California - our Cali is our first VW but already filling the memory banks

 

[sidepod]

Early Mk1 GTi with a well worn botton end and crap brakes.
Several Golfs and 4 years of T4 Cali.

Every trip is a joy.

 

[ArcticMatt]

I still have fond memories going to France & Holland every year for our holidays in our old van. We broke down all over Northern Europe. There was no better way to go. That was back in the days when normal folk could afford campers. I wonder if these two are still on the go. The green one was a 2L devon moonraker and the orange was a 1600. I was a horrible child and covered as many surfaces as I could in bogies! I hope my son doesn't end up doing the same.

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

Untitled by Matt Wilde, on Flickr

 

[sidepod]

Bit of Mk1 action there....

 

[MattBW]

Great idea!

I've not had too many VWs but had a few when I think about it.

White G plate Mk2 Golf, also got broken into a lot, but served me well. Had my first CD changer in my car, thought I had arrived lol, until it got stolen in York whilst away with a young lady.

I remember driving into the heart of London (back when you could) to see friends, and listening to Mechanical Animals album and Eagle Eye Cherry. To this day those albums remind me of that car.

Also have owned a T25 since 2012 and had so many adventures its too hard to list. My GF also has a T25 and we got together whilst we were looking for camper vans individually. In faact had our first kiss in hers. Combined with the Cumbria snowed in adventure, there has rarely been a dull moment in the VW.

 

[MattBW]

My little bro also had a Mk1 golf cabriolet many years ago (early 90s) which stayed in the family for many years. It was beautiful but the ride was horrendous so it rarely stayed with one person for long.

 

[ArcticMatt]

Bit of Mk1 action there....

Aye that was my uncles I cant remember if that was an RS because he had a mark 2 RS2000. If only he'd kept them.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Back in my youth there was my '79 Polo that I got to replace my Mini (I might have trashed the engine). It felt so luxurious by comparison. 850cc's of raw power. Lasted 6 months. Got fed up with older cars around this time.

Then when I lived in Germany I had a black Golf. Nothing special. I kept losing it in car parks, black Golfs being incredibly popular there...

I lent it to a friend one Christmas, as long as she picked me up from the airport when I got back. Bit of mistake, she took all the trim and quite a bit of the paint off the passenger side in Frankfurt airport carpark

I remember driving it back to the UK one Easter and thinking what a nightmare it was to have a LHD car in the UK

And now I have an old LHD van. Which is a fantabulous thing indeed.

 

[Skylark2.0]

Sitting by the Mosel in the sunshine watching barges and trains go by. Lovely and warm outside after snow just a few days earlier in the mountsins. Wonderful memory for us all.

Mind you screeching to a halt when we spotted a male hen harrier flying alongside us in the wilds of Isaly was quite memorable.

Driving around a corner in Holland and straight onto a roll on roll off ferry was a shock but an interesting memory too...

All recent memories but none the worse for that!

 

[sidepod]

All this is jogging memories now......an English teacher had an orange Bay, circa '73. All of the teachers used to reverse park against a very low wall, just slightly higher than sump level.
The Bay used to regularly get lifted onto the wall so it sat on the bumper, its rear wheels just off the deck.

Sorry Mr K.

 

[Georgiegirl]

When I was growing up my grandparents had a camper van (sadly not a VW but a Bedford Dormobile) and I was fascinated by the stories of their travels around the UK. The first car I bought myself was a 1972 VW Beetle in light blue. I loved that car and spent a few summers at Bug Jam at Santa Pod raceway, most of the time drooling over the T2 camper vans! So it's been a childhood dream to own a campervan and now I have the Cali I can hardly believe my luck! Sadly work gets in the way of going on 3-4 month trips like my grandparents but I will get there eventually.