Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder gives a walkaround of the 21-window 1967 VW Samba Bus.
TranscriptJOHN SNYDER: Hi everyone. John Snyder with Autoblog here. And in front of me, sitting in my driveway, is a 1967 Volkswagen Microbus. Specifically the 21 window Samba. Let's take a look at it.
There's lots and lots of windows. These make for nice views. There's a fabric sunroof that opens up, but I didn't want to mess with that. Engine's in the back. This one has a 1.5 liter making-- oops-- making a total of 54 horsepower. This thing is not fast. It has a top speed of 65 and, man, 0 to 60 is a long time.
Back here, if you need to put groceries or whatever, got your little spot. A small child could camp in there if they needed to. Let's go in the front first. Nice little cabin here.
The steering wheel. It's super flat. It really feels like you're driving a bus. Four on the floor. There's your parking brake. This is kind of interesting. This is where you get your fresh air. If you look right here, it comes in through there, and then there is a little vent right here if you want it to go to you. These were if you want to set it back.
Passengers. Spare tire is right there. So this thing's been pretty fun to d-- really fun to drive. Not pretty fun, it's really fun. Even though it's slow, it's a-- it's a real charmer. Let's see here.
The windows of course, manual. And some tilt windows too. Which way does this do? This goes this way. There you go. There you go. More fresh air. I needed a lot of that today, it was pretty toasty.
These doors are kind of cool. They open, instead of sliding, they both open like that. The thing is, if you're on any sort of an incline or if there's a light breeze, one of these is always flapping closed.
Second row seating. Third row of seating. To get back there this little guy pops down. And there you are. Here's a little view of the cabin from back here.
It's pretty nice. And then, like I said, you've got these windows to gape out of. You know, if you're on a tour of the Alps, say, or anywhere where you want to look up and see, you know, the tree tops or the sky above or whatever is above you, it's pretty good.
One last little feature-- you got to-- that sort of makes this vehicle really unique-- I'll come back around to the driver's side-- is a-- but first let's take a look at little windshield wipers. You got to manually pop them out if you want to use them.
And finally, there is-- if you loosen these guys and pop that up-- you can fold up both halves of these split windows. Then you got to tighten them again. [INAUDIBLE].
Can't really hold this up and tighten it with one hand, but you get the idea. So you can drive around with, you know, fresh air coming in your face. I had a bug-- big old bug fly in earlier.
There it is. The 1967 Volkswagen Samba. Very nice. Very nice vehicle. Really makes me want to buy an air cooled something. I've been wanting a beetle forever and this just makes me want it even more. Although, I wouldn't kick one of these out of the garage either.
It's pretty wonderful to drive. Gotten a lot of looks, a lot of hollers. People yelling, it's so cute. And, nice van. Love your ride. And, I know, I get it. I 100% get it. There it is. Anyway, thanks for watching. Take care.
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