October 25, 1968
With all the bailout news focused on automakers I thought it might be interesting to mix in a few auto ads from another era.
If the current look of the Volkswagon ad looks familiar you must have lived through the 1960’s. They have brought back the iconic look for today’s advertising. I can’t think of a carmaker that has gotten more mileage out of a design based in the 1930’s. The name tranlates to “people’s car” from German and was Teutonic answer to the Model T.
This ad says 1949 but the original designs date back to before World War II. In the early days, VW has often advertised a quirky but steady persona, now they have more than one generation of customer. Back then they had to reassure people that they would be around tomorrow. The original bugs were easy to work on, a high school friend and I restored an old one during a summer. It ran pretty well after Than evicted the mice from the engine.
This ad takes a swipe at the extinct carmakers Kaiser, Husdon and Nash and extols steady German engineering. American budget auto makers were under pressure from both Europe and Japan as the foreign automakers retooled their industries for economic strength rather than military power. In a nod to the American market they don’t brag about fuel economy, they talk about engine power being increased by 76%. I don’t think anyone at NASCAR lost sleep.
The dealer in San Luis Obispo at the time was Fred Lucksinger Motors at 895 Palm St.
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I OWNED A 68 BEETLE AND BOUGHT IT FROM FRED LUCKSINGER MOTORS. USED IT TO COMMUTE FROM ATASCADERO TO SLO.
I bought my first car from Fred Lucksinger motors, a 1968 vw bug. I still have the bug parked in my barn here in Indiana. And, it runs.I was a student at Cuesta College at the time and there were so many vw bugs of the same color I would have trouble finding it some days.It got better mileage then they do today.25 cent gas!
I owned a used beetle in the late 60s, as well as a very used VW van, equipped for camping, that I bought for $500 to travel across the US with my sister and a friend in 1970. It threw a rod not long after we crossed into Arizona. We were stuck in Yuma for three days while my parents wired $300 for a new engine. The shiny new engine looked out of place in the van, but we soon put several thousand miles on it. A great month-long trip, and worth the time it took me to pay back my parents. I wish I had either of those vehicles today!
My Dad bought a brand new no-window van from Lucksinger Mtrs in 1961. It made 4 trips across middle America in its heyday, the 60s and 70s. It was the one and only new car purchase of his entire life. 29 years later, he had to sell it when he was no longer able to drive. How I wish I’d had the good sense to buy it from him. The Cal Poly student who did totaled it 3 days later. I miss them both.
It was hard to not notice Dads Crew Cab around town. He had one of two in the county then. Dad drove that thing anywhere it was wide enough to fit the wheel base. I recall he was rear-ended in LA after a Dodger game, and had to drive all the way back in 2nd gear!
My dad bought a new 63 and 68 from Lucksinger Mtrs. He also owned a 59 and 67 if I remember correctly. All were great cars and we enjoyed their unique characteristics. The 68 was fine until he sold it to me. The 100 degree valley heat was just not agreeable with the car.
Fred Lucksinger arranged for us to buy a VW van in Germany, which worked out very well; my father-in-law also got a VW in 68, a beetle, which he gave to us 30 years later!
David do you take suggestions for stories? The talk of San Luis in the Fifties was the murder of a young man on the Grade, by Mrs. Ryan. But I was just too young to remember what happened. There must have been a big write up in the T-T at the time.
Wow. Thanks everyone for the comments. Those VW’s had a lot of stories to share. Long time T-T reporter and editorial page editor, the late Warren Groshong used to drive a Bug to the office. He also had stories about when he drove around Europe in a Bug.
I am always open to story suggestions Jim. Keep in mind the Vault tries to focus on stories with interesting visuals. I make exceptions but anything before 1963 is found at random, spinning through microfilm. We have almost no photographer’s negatives before ’63 and the microfilm of news pages is not indexed. Anything photo from earlier is a random print from our library.