In mid-2018, a friend visited Moab and told me he thought the big Volkswagen disposal yard off Spanish Valley Drive was gone. Was that possible? We had photographed the treasures (
i.e., old Volkswagens) in
2016, and I thought it unlikely that someone had bought them and moved them all away. Considering that there were 100 or 200 cars there, moving them would require a fleet of 18-wheelers, a serious expense.
However, I can report good news: as of October 2019, Tom Tom Foreign Car Parts is still at 1809 E. Mill Creek Drive, at the junction with Spanish Valley Drive. It looks like someone maintains the place because I saw fresh cat food and cat water outside. I did not see the watch cats, but possibly they were on rodent patrol. I only had time for a few mobile phone images. The yard has been cleared and neatened a bit, but the overall ambience is intact.
Here are a couple of
Type 3 Volkswagens, known as the Squareback in the USA market and the Variant in Europe. These were handy little station wagons with more interior room than the Beetle. I had a 1965 model in college. My dad bought this car in Ankara, Turkey. He drove it to Genoa and had it shipped to Boston. When camping, I could sleep in the back at an angle or straight front and back with the hatch open. You can't do that in most of the pretentious crossover/SUV play trucklets that curse our highways and mall parking lots today. With its rear engine, the Squareback could go up and down snowy mountain roads with no problems at all.
Here is the classic Beetle, the Type 1 Volkswagen. The original is still popular.
This is the classic bus, officially the Volkswagen Type 2. It was also called, depending on body style, the Transporter, Kombi or Microbus. The Westfalia-Werke camper versions are still popular in the US west, and restored examples sell for serious prices now.
Tom was creative in his use of body parts to make the fence at his property. Well done! When you readers travel through Moab, make time to visit the Volkswagen museum. Buy one, take it home, and get it restored. Learn how to use a real transmission (
i.e., with a clutch pedal) and have fun in your Beetle.
These are all digital images from a Moto G5 mobile phone.
6 comments:
It would be a better world if all those beetles were still on the road.
Ha ha, you are right. Don't get me started on what I think of crossovers and "sport utility" vehicles.
Anyone have a phone number for them if you do please text me 253-686-7365
I was privileged to be surprised by my son to this beautiful sight on a recent trip in August, 2023. I stood on a little dirt mound staring in awe over the most gorgeous sight I've seen. The stories each held, the VWs sat in place waiting to be viewed.
Alice Pearson Reed
YES. I had a bus.
I wish I still.had it
My guy still has his.
Why can't VW be creative and make interesting cool and simple cars again.
Hi Anonymous, I know several people who wish they still had their VW bus from the old days. They were slow but fuel efficient. And you could sleep in one, drive up steep mountain roads, and pack a lot of stuff in the back. I think VW has introduced a new version recently, but I have not looked into it.
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