This is completely unscientific, but the most popular make of car among readers of “John Kelly’s Washington” is the Volkswagen. I base this not only on the people who wrote to say they missed their beloved VWs, but also on the people who said that after they sold their true love they bought a Volkswagen.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
These were people like Al DeLucia of Leesburg. In 1967, he received a $3,000 inheritance, the exact cost of a Pontiac GTO: “black, with a four-speed Hurst on the floor, a Quadrajet carb and red sidewall oval tires,” wrote Al. “A beauty, and with 400 cubic inches putting out 330 horsepower, I could barely keep it on the ground.”
In 1970, Al was entering what he calls his “late hippie phase.” The Detroit muscle car no longer fit his image — “so I sold it for $1,500 and bought a 1968 VW Beetle. My younger brother had wanted the car, but my dad wouldn’t let him take it, afraid he would kill himself.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Al’s brother never forgave him. Al has never quite forgiven himself, either.
Some people love cars so much they’re sad to see them go — and miss them still
As Steve Mitchell was about to start college in 1970, he managed to get a pretty good deal on a four-year-old red Mustang convertible.
“That fall, I was all proud of my car on campus, wooed my girlfriend with it, which worked,” wrote Steve, of Ellicott City, Md. “We have now been married 50 years. But I had to sell it because my wife could not drive a stick shift, and claimed her father’s efforts to teach her had been a huge failure.”
What replaced the pony car? A VW Fastback with an automatic.
Wrote Steve: “But I still think about that cute, red, ragtop Mustang!”
The District’s Laurent Gosselin had a 1948 Mercury convertible that he sold before entering the Coast Guard in 1963. He later bought a 1967 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. He’s not sure that makes him a “car guy.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Wrote Laurent: “I was raised in Detroit and in my mind a car guy could only be identified by owning and driving a Detroit car — something big, fast, loud, sleek and sexy. The Karmann Ghia just wouldn’t roar or spin its little tires. .？.？. That said, I love cars and wish I had a 1940 Ford coupe with a big block Ford engine displaying a supercharger on top.”
Now, I don’t want to leave the impression that a Volkswagen is the automotive equivalent of a cold shower, motorized saltpeter, designed to quash passion. For every reader who ended his or her reverie with “.？.？. and then I sold it and bought a VW,” there was another who pined for their lost Bug or funky camper van.
Bruce Hahn of Winchester, Va., had a 1968 Westfalia. What he misses even more is his 21-window 1961 Samba Deluxe.
Story continues below advertisement
“It was grossly underpowered, with a 34-horsepower engine,” he wrote. “It could barely reach 50 mph and strong wind gusts could literally blow it into either adjoining lane. I didn’t regret selling this very unsafe vehicle at the time but I do now, since some fools are willing to pay $100,000 for one in good original condition.”
Advertisement
In 1970, Glen Finland and her two older sisters pooled their money to buy the first brand-new car they’d ever driven: a bright red VW Beetle convertible with a black top. Cost: $1,999.
The Beetle eventually wound up with Glen.
“One day I bought a gallon of blue paint to fix up my dorm room and it tipped over into the back seat without me knowing it,” she wrote. “After a few days, I realized the paint had started to erode a hole in the floorboard.”
Story continues below advertisement
The Volkswagen took Glen through journalism school at the University of Georgia, to her first TV news job in Macon and up to Washington, “stuffed with all my belongings and a feral cat that found me in a Macon elevator, so I named him Turn-Up.”
Wrote Glen: “The VW Bug sat quiet for a few months until one morning I got in it and two squirrels ran over my shoulder before disappearing into the back seat where they’d built a nest.”
Advertisement
The hole in the floorboard had gotten bigger and was now squirrel-size. From then on, Glen would clap twice before entering to send the critters scurrying out into the street.
“Eventually I married and had a baby,” said Glen. “I was afraid if I put that baby in the back seat, he’d fall right through that hole.”
Story continues below advertisement
And thus was the Volkswagen passed on to a nephew.
Helping Hand
I hope you will lend a helping hand to The Washington Post Helping Hand, our annual fundraising drive. The three charities we are supporting — Miriam’s Kitchen, Friendship Place and Bread for the City — help people who are experiencing homelessness in Washington.
To learn about them — and contribute — visit the website posthelpinghand.com.
Twitter: @johnkelly
For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.