Love Bug Season at the Beach
To Eddie and Shannon Bradshaw, their new VW Beetle is their pride and joy--a ton and a half of retro fun they have named “Zippy.”
On Sunday, they joined a dozen other Beetle owners at Huntington State Beach to start one of the first Beetle car clubs in Southern California that is dedicated to a modernized remake of the 1960s bug.
“Oh, I can tell you when we got our car, that was June 28,” said Shannon Bradshaw, 28, of Orange. “That’s the day our baby was born. We don’t have kids so we think of our car as our baby.”
The new Beetle has struck a chord with aficionados of the Beetle comeback.
“I’ve owned VWs ever since I got my license when I was 16,” said Randy Carlson of Brea, who organized the Beetle beach party. Carlson sells dash covers, flower vases and license plate frames on the Internet for the new 1998 Beetle.
“I paid 50 bucks for my first car. It was in an accident and had rolled over. I bought another body for $25 and I put the thing together. I just love Volkswagens,” Carlson said.
Nothing in recent years has enjoyed a marketing sensation such as the new Beetle. Through June, 17,431 Beetles have been sold in the United States. Although the sticker price is $16,500, the out-the-door cost has averaged $18,500. Some buyers have to get on waiting lists.
From the owners’ perspectives, buying a VW has been nothing short of life changing, said Colleen Wirth, 33, of San Diego.
“I walk out of my house every day and I just smile when I see it,” Wirth said. “It helps me start out on the right foot. And, it’s been like that ever since I got it.”
For personal touches, Wirth put a felt butterfly on the dashboard and a colorful ladybug in the rear. Other than that, the only thing she did was “wash it.”
When Dave Anderson, 31, of Riverside, pulled in with his silver Beetle, everybody was impressed.
Anderson, who owns his own aftermarket car company, has spent nearly $10,000 upgrading everything on his Beetle, including the tires, wheels, brakes, suspension and engine. His leather seat inserts were an especially hot item among the other VW owners.
“We completely modified everything we could do to it,” Anderson said proudly, as the other Beetle owners took turns sticking their heads inside.
Although the car isn’t a year old yet, one driver, Blue Nelson, 29, of Santa Monica, who was at Huntington Beach, has become a celebrity of sorts with his Route 66 adventure.
In the spring, Nelson joined Carlson and a third driver and launched a “VW Adventure Route 66.” For several weeks, the three Beetle enthusiasts traveled the United States in their Beetles, stopping along the way to document it on film and on the Internet.
“It was so successful,” Nelson said, “that we got 1 million visitors a week [on the Internet].”
It also got Volkswagen company officials interested in sponsoring part of the trip, said Nelson, who as a result leaves for Europe the first week of August.
“I’m going to try to drive this car around the world,” Nelson said. “I’m going to film it as a documentary and I’ve already gotten the Discovery Channel and Jay Leno interested.”
