I remember the drop-in leader from our local Y taking us, his young charges, out to a big theme park in one of these - his own daily driver. (Yes, the guy had his hippie card…) I really liked the vehicle; was enamored of VWs in general.
Hard to believe people thought these would be safe enough to transport livestock, much less their kids. We got through fine, but I shudder to think.
OTOH, my 2007 GTI has more than twice the horsepower, but weighs nearly 4,000 pounds, wasting most of those horses hauling extra metal around. It’s a great car, but still…
I recall of the bus, reading someplace (probably the Compleat Idiot’s Guide to VW repair) that you could make it go up hills in reverse that it couldn’t tackle in forward gears.
