Mike Lupica’s last post mentioning his favorite teenage
past-time of destroying shopping carts using his VW Rabbit made me all
teary-eyed and nostalgic… my first car was also a VW Rabbit (’83 convertible,
holla’). Alas, we reminisced about the endearing mechanical misgivings of the
Volkswagen anymodel, circa late-70s through mid-80’s, and discovered that our
vehicles had oh-so-many maladies in common.
Here is the shortlist of our favorite vee-dub
idiosyncrasies:
- Temperamental horn or oil alarm
- Simultaneous malfunction of speedometer, odometer, and gas gauge
- Water dripping on feet while driving in rainy weather
- Side window/rear view mirror spontaneously detaching
- Sh-sh-shudder if driven over 80 mph
VW-inspired tunes from the WFMU archives (click to hear Real
Audio):
Il y a Volkswagen
“Kill Myself”
Gilberto Gil “Volks, Volkswagen Blue”
Os Incriveis “If My VW Bug Could Talk”
To further establish the divinity of the VW Rabbit, this ’84 beast that runs on used veggie oil says it all. Take that, Delorean.
And speaking of garbage-powered vehicles from the future... Crispin Glover (interview, Real Audio) swung by WFMU last week for a chat with Pseu Braun.
The first car I remember my parents having was a Rabbit. Sitting on the hot plastic seats after a day at the pool = BLEH.
And since it had commerical plates for when my father took it to the city for work, it had his studio address AND OUR LAST NAME on the side of the doors. Oh, the embarrassment.
Posted by: zoe | March 15, 2005 at 03:07 PM
My mom had a blue Rabbit. I remember liking the logo. It had a rabbit on it.
Posted by: Rob S. | March 15, 2005 at 04:10 PM
my first car was a rabbit too... i was working at a pathmark with underground parking ... it was my 17th birthday and i saved for a used RABBIT my folks picked it up and when i got out of work that day it was under the pathmark waiting for me ... woo hooo... i beat the shit out of that car and came in contact with more near death experiences than one could possibly imagine... i think i killed some shopping carts with my VW too ;) and some almost killed me... oh those were the days....
once i got chased through newark by a cadillac full of pissed off folks i had cut off ... they chased me 10 blocks i finally ditched into a random driveway and turned off my lights and they whizzzzzzed by as the old man on his porch looked at me like "hey white boy why you in my driveway" ...
oh the joy....
Posted by: rob | March 15, 2005 at 04:41 PM
I learned how to drive with a '79 VW Dasher. That thing was was a beast.
Posted by: Eep | March 16, 2005 at 08:48 AM