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Small--On Safety: The Designed-In Dangers of the Volkswagen by Center for Auto Safety (Ralph Nader)

Small--On Safety: The Designed-In Dangers of the Volkswagen by Center for Auto Safety
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ralph Nader is more well known for his book "Unsafe at any speed" which focus on the Chevrolet Corvair. What is probably less known is that he also targeted the Volkswagen's of the era. Some of the issues they found were the vehicles vulnerability to crosswind's, ejection during a rear-end collision, door latches that popped open easily in an accident and a poorly designed gas cap that could easily pop off. His harshest criticism was for VW Microbus which they thought should be taken off the roads completely citing it's almost complete lack "crush distance" the occupant has in a front end collision. This was even more vulnerable crosswinds due to it's light weight and slab sides.

A big issue I detected was not just that these vehicles had legitimate safety issues it was the slow response of the manufacturer in addressing and fixing these issues. Of course reading about automotive safety of the period most manufacturers were slow to fix items. Few even wanted to admit vehicles could be unsafe in any way often fearing it would hurt sales. In this light one could hardly point to Volkswagen as being the only automaker guilty of not addressing safety issues fast enough.

This was published in 1972 and I think by this time many of the issues were address by Volkswagen and didn't seem to hurt sales as I believe 72-73 were some of their biggest sales years. In any even Volkswagen was changing to more conventionally designed water cooled cars like the the Golf(aka: Rabbit in the USA) and by the end of the decade the Beetle was gone from the American market although it was still produced elsewhere up until 2003.

I became aware of this book after reading about other asking if these classic Volkswagen were safe for new drivers and is it okay for daily driving. As a VW enthusiast myself (I own a 74 Beetle) I was curious too. Even after reading this I still love the car. I would say this though I'd be hesitant to recommend these for brand new drivers or for daily driving. They are nowhere near as safe as today's vehicles with airbags and crumple zones engineered in. A stock air cooled VW is also very slow to keep up in today's congested streets. I've been a driver for over 3 decades and I'm hesitant to drive mine in heavy traffic. They also need a lot of hands on maintenance and they accelerate very slowly. To me these are classic collectables left to drive on weekend's unless you work five minutes down the street. This is just my two cents as I'm sure others may disagree.

I'd say this book would be an interest to Volkswagen enthusiasts just to be aware of the issues they had. I wouldn't stop driving one because of this book. These classic vehicles aren't driven as much as they used to.


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The Rise And Fall Of The Volkswagen Beetle

The Bug and The Beetle!

An early 70's pep-talk film for General Motors employees of the time. Features a lot of footage VW's, Toyota's and Datsun's (Nissan's). The drama is somewhat comical at times but their worries and some predictions were correct. Foreign competition was here to stay. One thing that cemented it was the fuel crisis that hit just a couple of years later and hurt them even more. Foreign cars, usually smaller, used less fuel held an advantage over American car makers who couldn't unload their gas guzzling behemoth's anymore. That along with ever tightening emission and tougher safety standards it was a rough decade for the big three in Detroit. 

Baja Bug Playing in the Snow!

Looks like a fun ride. Driver sure gets a workout with the steering wheel. Enjoy!

VW Cabriolet: Skip's Fiesta Drive-in Series by Revell (Kit 7151)

I recently finished up a scale model of VW Cabriolet by Revell. This isn't really a deep review but just some thoughts on the kit itself. It is the VW Cabriolet by Revell and is KIT 7151 and is a 1/25 scale model of a early 70's(no specified year is given) Volkswagen Cabriolet. It is part of a series called "Skip's Fiesta Drive-in Series" which when I Googled it came up with several other kits featuring Corvette's, Camaro's Ford's and etc... It was also a real place at one time in the suburbs of Chicago that was a popular hot rod hang until the early 70's.

I picked this this kit up for discount because it appeared slightly crushed and possibly some  minor water damage. It was opened but all the parts appeared to be there. The parts were all in zip lock  bags so it was opened at some time.

I've built many kits in my youth but took a lot of time off in between. I've just recently got back into and so I'm still working on my skills.

Color: Testor's 1631 Gloss Custom Purple Metal Flake

Part of the reason I picked this one up as I own a real Volkswagen Beetle so I thought this would be a fun kit....so I thought.

It came molded in "Newport Green" with plated and clear parts. I wasn't a fan of that color and my girlfriend suggested purple so ended up with a metallic purple by Testors. I'm still working on my painting skills.

Although it came out looking okay but it was a frustrating kit in many ways. First was parts seemed to fit poorly together and had a lot of excess "flash" to clean off. The engine in particular had poor detailing and looked terrible. The exhaust manifold pipes were a pain. The whole rear engine compartment and firewall fit poorly together with the body. I had to clamp the inside door panels to wait for the glue to dry to body. Ended up having to do some paint repair on the outside because of this. The chassis fit poorly so all four wheels still won't touch ground.

On a side note the cover shows the Bug bumper-less but the kit comes with bumpers and holes in the body for them. The instructions don't even mention these nor instructs you how to fill in these holes. Obviously some minor puttying and sanding would take care of this but just found it odd. This might be a little puzzling or intimidating to a beginner. It didn't bother me because I actually prefer the bumpers.

You can see the paint damage I had to repair(this was my error).

It did have some good points. The interior is decently detailed as far as the dash and door panels go.The body is decently detailed but seems be vague as far as being close to original styling. Obviously this represented a custom Bug so they were loose with the authentic details. I liked the option of the convertible top up or down. 

This Bug took me close to a year to finish, I did take a lot of time away from it but I didn't have a lot of fun doing this one so I didn't feel a lot incentive to make time for this. Over all I wasn't impressed with it as far a fit and finish. Unless you're a collector of these kits or a fanatic VW Beetle enthusiast that has to have it I'd probably stay away from this one.