Funny true Volkswagen story

[norgeway]

Sometime in the mid 50s my Dads best friend Joe Culbreath had a bit of fun with one of his co workers at Hibriten Furniture co,,,It seems this guy bought a new VW ..one of if not the first one to come to Lenoir NC, anyhow, he bragged to no end about how much gas mileage he was going to get, so Joe, and a few others got together and decided to have some fun, every day they would slip out to the parking lot and add a Coke bottle full of gas to the VW...well, at the end of two weeks, the guy was really bragging.."Boys" he said, "Im getting 62 miles to the gallon, now I know you dont believe it, but its true!!",,,So next, they started siphoning out a Coke bottle full every day!!LOL...Joe said he saw the guy one day waiting to punch in at the time clock, seeing that he looked really down, Joe asked what was the matter, he replied, " Joe, them damn foreign cars aint worth a damn, now its broken in it aint getting but 12 miles to the gallon!!"...They never did let on what they had done!!

 

[tomoldcars]

Zeitgeist is real

My high school science teacher, Mr Lucus, bought a new VW in 62 or 63, either my junior or senior year. The conspiracy was exactly as you described. The car was accessible both at his home and in the school parking lot. The plot to add a quart or so every couple of days was initiated shortly after the car arrived in response to his condemnation of our gas guzzling dinosaurs. As I recall, it was a few weeks before he commented on the astounding distance he’d traveled on the first tank of gas. Again, as I recall, (this was 50 years ago) the procedure was reversed following Christmas vacation. This produced constant complaints about the incompetent dealer who couldn’t restore the gas mileage. I was not in his class for the second semester; I don’t know how the problem was resolved. It’s been a story I’ve enjoyed telling for over 50 years.

 

[combo52]

Funny Story

I have heard several variations of this prank over the years involving different types of cars. My favorite was from a customer of ours in Rockville in the late 1970s, her husband had a Lincoln Town car and at first when she would borrow his car she would add a little gas to it so he wouldn't notice she had used it. Then she starting hearing him brag to their friends what great mileage he was getting from the TC, often over 20 MPG and he was kidding his friends for buying little cars.

Anyway she kept doing her little adding gas stunt and he eventually claimed that he had gotten over 40 MPG out of the Lincoln before he figured out what his wife was doing, and after he found out he was so mad that he traded the Lincoln for a VW Rabbit.

My only question on the VW story was how they got the gas in the tank as the fuel filler was locked under the front trunk lid on early VW bugs, didn't the guy lock his new car?

 

[danemodsandy]

John:

You didn't lock your car in the '50s and early '60s - no need to.

Our family car for a number of years was a 1956 Chevrolet One-Fifty, as basic a piece of transport as GM made.

It had the standard GM ignition switch of the time, which could be locked, but which could also be left unlocked, making a key unnecessary to start the car.

On the rare occasions the car needed locking, there was always a search for the keys, because they generally hadn't been used in quite a while.

I also recall one time that Mom forgot to lock the house when we left for a two-week vacation. When we got back and discovered her mistake, nothing whatever was disturbed.

Different time.

 

[cornutt]

I remember those GM ignition switches. You always left the car unlocked at home -- "Someone might need to move it". (Actually, this was true as far as my dad was concerned; in the evening his friends would come over to play basketball in the driveway.) And I can recall that when you went on a trip, you left the house unlocked and told a neighbor, and they would go in once a day and check up on things and water your house plants and take care of your pets or whatever. It would be really weird nowdays if you were in your neighbor's house and they weren't there, but my parents' generation didn't think anything of it.

 

[philr]

Leaving cars unlocked!

A friend of mine has a 2006 Jetta and he always leaves it unlocked! One of the reasons for that is that some of the door locks don't even work anymore! Apparently, there's no way to lock the car's passenger side door! He's the last to be concerned about that. He rarely locks any doors, he even often leaves his keys in the ignition switches, he often leaves his house and his business unlocked...

His cars are mostly Diesels and they get great gas mileage, but the 2006 is one of the worst-looking I have ever seen! He also has many old Dodge Rams with Cummins Diesels and Volkswagens, most are beat-up and some have over 400,000 miles!

 

I also used to leave the doors of my vehicles unlocked but I got scared a few times when children entered in my vehicles and put them in neutral. The worst that happened was finding my '65 Buick at the middle of the street when I visited a friend and his 3-4 years old son who entered in the car and shifted to neutral... I noticed while he was trying to push it back in the driveway and crying! When I saw that, I started to laugh but his father didn't (that's why his son was crying!). He is now 13 and we just talked about that event last weekend after he moved my small truck in his father's driveway (this time, with the keys and with his father's approval!). 

 

A few years ago,  I welded a large outdoor toy to help poor neighbors who have many kids and when I parked my truck in their steep driveway to deliver it back, their 5-6 years old son (who apparently has serious learning and behavior problems) entered in my truck while I was unloading it... Then he locked the doors and didn't want to get out! It's a good thing I had an extra set of keys on me (as I had left the other ones on the switch). When I finally unlocked and opened the door, the kid's uncle who was visiting took care to get the mad kid out as his parents didn't even react!

That time, I was seriously afraid as he could have moved the shifter in neutral and my truck would have gone through the garage door 50 feet down if that had happened!

 Someone also stole things in my truck a few years ago while it was parked at home. So now, I leave the doors locked even if I'm just a few feet away!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I remember that gas mileage-altering stunt was featured in a TV movie with Carol Burnett. I think there was a sick or dying child and the prank was played on a neighbor.