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2007 Subaru Legacy Wagon. The pic below is not my actual car but the exact same year/model/color. Absolutely love the car at 5+ years, and plan to eventually replace the wife's Nissan minivan with a Subaru of some kind.

I've always told everyone that if I ever won the lottery I'd probably just buy a faster Subaru, and that's still true! They are not as common in the south as they are in the northeast or out west, but I've seen more and more the past few years as sales have picked up.

Bonus points: my car is a Hoosier - built at the Subaru plant in Indiana!!

mysteryclock++4-5-2012-10-03-4.jpg
 
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS. I love my little car (despite the fact it needs a new paint job). It has only 77,000 miles on the odometer.

If I had the chance to trade it in, it would be for a Chevy Cruze like the one pictured a few posts back, but in either blue or silver. Now, if I had the chance to REALLY go whole hog, I'd step up to a 2013 Malibu.
 
MisterEric,
you have good taste in cars! I've got a 2011 Dark Charcoal Metallic LTZ Cruze with sunroof. I traded in my 2008 Cadillac SRX on it. I LOVE the Cruze. The only options I gave up were the heated steering wheel and adj pedals and actually some of the systems are better. I'm waiting fot Buick to offer the Verona w/turbo and it might come home with me.
 
2012 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited

Here is "Electra" the day we picked her up. Named after one of the Stars in the Subaru badge and the first "Limited" I remember was the neighbors 73 Electra 225. This car has been great, quiet, powerful, and all wheel drive. Newest one of the fleet.

philcoford++4-5-2012-20-07-14.jpg
 
The T Bird

My baby. Not a classic Tbird but give it a few years. With 4 wheel independent suspension and rear wheel drive, I really enjoy driving this one.
Love seeing all the classics and newer cars everyone have posted, thanks.

philcoford++4-5-2012-20-16-27.jpg
 
My 70' Bug has manual transmission and 162,000 miles on it. It runs and drives like new. The tires (2 years old) still have the new tire nubs on them!

It's also fully stock, no modifications to it except for relocating the fuel filter to the front of the car.
 
Crispy Bugs

"<a name="start_39621.587491">no modifications to it except for relocating the fuel filter to the front of the car."</a>

 

Such a WONDERFUL idea. This is something that EVERY bug owner should do. Period...

 

(Warning: Rant coming!)

Fuel and fire don't mix. VW never put filters on these cars from the factory with the exception of a few of the later Super Beetles and when they did, they were under the tank. Just about EVERY one of these I see has that damn cheap plastic filter in the engine compartment on the PRESSURE side of the fuel pump. These are not designed to be postively pressurized. To make matters worse the weight of the filter can cause the brass fittings to work loose on some of the carbs and the fuel pumps. The thing is, the VW engine is MUCH hotter on the exterior than a liquid cooled engine. Just the engine alone is more than hot enough to ignite leaking fuel. When these cheap fuel filters burst, the engine continues to run on the fuel in the carb bowl and that means that fuel pump will keep blasting fuel all over the place. It's not an intended place for the filter, and you're not even protecting the fuel pump from debris like that. I've seen 1st hand 3 of these fuel fires from the engine bay, many times people didn't even have clamps on the hoses because they were german hoses. Old timers seem to bicker and haw about this saying things like "I've been doing it for 20 years.. bla bla" well it only takes once. AND in reality, it's so stupid, I mean, $5 filter if that, do you REALLY want risk all of the hard work and pride in a $5 Chinese plastic part?

 

Had to get that out, I've been looking at too many VW's in the past few days, trying to get someone to come off a Cali body for a 74 so I can put it together, VW's here are rot. Whirlcool, amazing little 70' you got there. Is that Pastel White or Savannah Beige? I'm a fan of the later bugs, 68+ and 70 and 72 are my favorite years, I really feel like VW got it right on these 2 years. My dream car is a Texas Yellow 72 SB Sunroof car...

 

Brandon, where are your fuel filters mister!

 

Also I really like the contrasting maroon and blue, those cars look to be in good shape, and the euro touch is nice.

 

 

-Tim
 
Actually according to the Orange VW Service manuals from VW the stock fuel filter is located next to the distributor.

There is also a second area of concern. Where the cloth braided rubber fuel line passes through the firewall behind the engine there is a rubber grommet. This rubber grommet usually wears out after 12,000 miles or so. If it does and falls the fuel line will rub against the very sharp firewall metal. Then if fuel starts leaking it will squirt right on the hot engine. This usually starts a fire.

And when the el cheapo clear plastic filter next to the distributor starts to leak or a hose leaks it squirts right on the distributor and engine causing a fire.

The engine is made of magnesium alloy. And it can catch fire. The trick is to catch the fire and put it out before this happens. Once that engine case starts burning almost nothing can put it out.

You can dump up to three chemical fire extinguishers on it and it won't put the fire out. You really need a Halon fire extinguisher, which I have in my bug, just in case. And also once every three years replace all the fuel lines from front to back. The original OEM hose is available at most VW specific parts vendors and it's pretty cheap. I also have a safety wire on the hoses in the engine compartment too. Just to be safe, sometimes the clamps will fail and the hose will come completely off the fuel pump outlet and just squirt gas everywhere.

Sometimes I think it was a wonder that these cars were allowed to operate like this for so long!

My 70 Bug is Savannah Beige and the 1970 model year was the best year for the VW Bug, more were sold that year than any other year.

Somewhere along the way my VW had it's nut brown interior replaced with a black interior. I have the nut brown interior (new) seat covers, wall panels & carpeting to do the job, just need the time to do it.
 
VW Filter

I've only seen them documented under the front tank on some SB convertibles, I can't imagine the factory putting them in there and the fire hazard that creates, but not to say they didn't I suppose. I know of the grommet, I think one solution for that was to enlarge the hole and put an oversize grommet in there. I watched one go up at a car show a while back, fuel filter cracked, and the engine was actually burning which like you said, was impossible to extinguish with what they had.

 

I love these cars, mostly for design principle and cuteness. A car specifically made for a specific purpose. That said, I never understood how they were daily drivers. These are actually high-maintenance cars, or at least they should be. So many things require frequent adjustments like the valves, which accounts for a high percentage of engine failure when neglected. Every 3000 miles for a valve adjustment is a tall order when most economy drivers did well to change the oil at 3000. And these were low end cars for the most part for a long time, and were not being restored, much like a Geo Metro of today or something cheap and disposable. I have seen hundreds of thousands of miles on them when maintained, but a lot of people that I knew of for a long time just found an engine and put it in and ran it. sometimes 20k, sometimes more and with no maintenance to the valves, then usually suck a valve in #3.

 

I would love to see some more pics of your 70', email if you get a chance.

 

-Tim
 

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