And it’s hard to say they haven’t met with complete success. And, let’s remember, this isn’t the only electric Type 2 in recent months. But where the ‘Type 20’ had a dismal 10kWh battery and door mirrors that look like set pieces in a Gunther von Hagens television programme, this electro-Kombi uses a much more successful formula: wedge an EV drivetrain in a Type 2 and make it look stock. In my dreams, I'm hoping to get home before the sun goes down and I’m forced to fix whatever issue is causing the headlights to dim.It might just be us, but we think Southern Californian electric-conversion wizards EV West have produced the most bemusingly desirable Kombi in recent memory.
I didn’t think about the Microbus until after the cash was out of my hands and helping someone else, and then I shrugged internally and got back into my trusty 1990 Honda Civic DX hatchback.īut I still think about that Samba and my imaginary drives up the coast during the sunset. Someone in the family needed $1100 right away. I had been broke for so long, having that amount of cash (or any cash really) in the bank felt unnatural anyway. Nevertheless, by the next day, I had decided to throw caution to the wind and do it. I had about $1200 saved up at that point, which I had squirreled away to survive after my imminent move to San Francisco, one of the world’s most costly cities. Let me think about it." I could feel my soul retract and collapse upon itself into a small black cube inside my body. Then I uttered the words that haunt me to this day. I was moving to San Francisco and by law, I had to have that bus. A host of van-related possibilities laid out before me on the open road. Long slow drives up the coast during sunsets (always during sunsets) with my surfboards strapped to the roof. I think he said it was missing one of the rear bench seats and likely needed a new clutch soon, but by that time my brain had shut him out and was fabricating my new life with a VW bus. He rattled off the work he had done to the piece of automotive history and what still needed to be finished.
When he made the $1500 sale offer, which he said was for me only, I turned and looked out the window of the Kinko's at the Microbus in the dark parking lot. (Full disclosure: Bring a Trailer is owned by Car and Driver' s parent company, Hearst Autos.) The restored beauty has only 300 miles post-restoration and looks like it did when it came off the lot in the early '60s.
I thought of that deal when I came across this amazing 1962 Volkswagen 23-Window Samba on Bring a Trailer. Although it may have been a 21-window version. It was at this copy shop that has since been absorbed into the FedEx monolith that one of my coworkers offered me a once-in-a-lifetime deal: his 1963 VW 23-Window Samba Microbus for $1500. In 1999, I was a student living in Huntington Beach, California, taking classes in Long Beach during the day and working at a nearby Kinko's at night. If you want to be smarter than he was back then, you'll have to bring lots of cash: the bidding is already at $80,000 as of July 3.The Volkswagen classic reminds the author of the similar one he was offered by a co-worker in the late 1990s for only $1500, but turned down.The auction site Bring a Trailer is listing a pristine restored 1962 VW 23-Window Samba Bus at no reserve, with the listing set to expire on Tuesday, July 7.