Little Green Super Beetle

Our family teen car is starting to act it's age. A 21-year-old Dodge Shadow with a sagging headliner is hardly inspiring so we have little motivation to invest money to keep it running. Skyler decided the perfect teen car would be a vintage Volkswagon Beetle. I figured why not—every budding gear head needs some experience with air-cooled VWs. [Who's the budding gear head here: Todd or Skyler?]

So, with a little tax return money, the search was on. We traveled far and wide to find reasonably priced Bug that wasn't a total basket case or rust bucket. I'm sure I enjoyed the hunt much more than Skyler. In the end we found this 1971 Super Beetle less than a mile from home (thanks to the miracle of craigslist.org). It even came decked out with Hawaiian-style seat covers, a rack, and a set of snow tires on rims.

Yes, it's got a few more bumps and bruises than I hoped for—but it is a teen car (as Skyler keeps reminding me). Yes, we're already buying a few parts to get it up to par. The local VW mechanic; however, pronounced our little bug as 'sound'. We've got a great VW repair manual to help us "keep it alive". We all enjoyed watching the old Disney movie "The Love Bug" last weekend. Consider us inspired—if not a little crazy.