Shared from www.odt.co.nz
by Debbie Porteous
What is it about Volkswagens that would attract 300 people in 140 vehicles to Dunedin for a weekend of V-dub-love?
According to those parked up at the VW Nationals car show, held at the Forsyth Barr Stadium yesterday, there were many reasons the German people's car remained all sorts of people's car.
Wellington Kombined Club member Paul Bonsey said enthusiasm for Volkswagens was actually an infectious disease.
The pair now travelled together to Volkswagen club events across the country.
"It's a social thing really," Mr Bonsey said. "It's a big worldwide club. We are all people getting together to share a common interest."
Mr Manley said people often modified their vans, and it was interesting to attend shows and see what people had done to vehicles.
"You don't want to start a conversation on what is better though," Mr Manley warned.
Invercargill woman Jo Dennis, who bought a 1968 Beetle eight months ago, said she liked Volkswagens because they were "cute and round and made such a cute noise ...".
Her friend Brenley Marshall (23), also from Invercargill, who owned a Beetle and a Golf, said he liked Volkswagens for their mechanical simplicity, although he admitted he missed out on showing his Beetle at the Nationals this year after he pulled it apart and did not have it back together in time.
After spending 30 hours a week for three years fixing up his 1964 Beetle, including installing leather Peugeot seats and a modern sound system, Lyttelton man Clive Argyle, who intended to use the car as an everyday runabout, said he had been forced to buy a bicycle to get about on instead, because he did not want to get the Beetle wet or dirty.
The Hopkinson family, of Christchurch, said they loved the community around Volkswagens and enjoyed family holidays in their 1961 Kombi van with friends who also had a Kombi van.
Their van still had many of its original fittings, although dad Neil, a longtime Volkswagen fan, had lowered it a little for "a better ride" and a "cooler" look.
There had been a few roadside repairs, he said, "but other vans don't have the personality".
The Vehicle of the Show prize was awarded to a car 16 years in the refurbishing - and not quite finished yet - a bright yellow 1973 Beetle belonging to Dunedin couple Ken and Margaret Berry.
But maybe it was Mr Bonsey who summed why they all loved VWs so much. "We're just VW nuts," he observed.
