I owned a Beetle (1964 1200) from 1971 to 1976. I did my own work on the car, everything from brake jobs, to tune-ups, to a complete engine overhaul. The three biggest tools I had were John Muir's wonderful hippie manual "How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Complete Idiot", and my 10 mm and 13 mm wrenches. I still have all three (not the Beetle though), and all three show the effects of long and devoted use. My neighbor actually asked me why all my wrenches were fairly clean except the 10 mm and the 13 mm. "I owned a Volkswagen Beetle," I told him.
I sold it to a friend and got a 1976 Rabbit, then a 1978 diesel Rabbit, which wore out in 1986. I traded it in and bought a 1986 Saab 900S, followed in 1992 by a 1988 Saab 900T (after the S was destroyed in an ice storm collision with two trucks; we walked home, a tribute to how well those cars are made), and, when it diedin 2002 on Autoroute 15, km 26, in Quebec, with a 1999 Saab 9-5 SE, which is still running strong. Carleton _____ From: Pat Naughtin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 14:53 To: Carleton MacDonald; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Re: [USMA:39016] RE: How to switch a 2007 Passat to km/h? Dear Carleton, Brian, Martin, Remek, and All, Ferdinand Porsche must be turning over in his grave to hear what you have to say about the modern Volkswagen. When Porsche designed the original Volkswagen 'Beetle' in the 1930s he was very conscious that it was to be an all-metric car. In fact he designed the car so that it had only three nut sizes as he was aiming for the ultimate in automotive engineering simplicity. There was a large nut of 28 millimetres for the nuts on each wheel and for the nut on the steering wheel; this required a special spanner that could be hung on the wall of the garage as it was rarely used. All other nuts and bolts were either 10 millimetres or 13 millimetres and a mechanic could have a double ended spanner in the pocket of their overalls with a 10 millimetre end and a 13 millimetre end and this was the entire toolkit necessary for all repairs on the Volkswagen. (See: http://www.amazon.com/Small-Wonder-Amazing-Volkswagen-Beetle/dp/0837601479 ) I believe that these principles are still firmly held by the Volkswagen company engineers but that the Volkswagen marketing department in the USA - probably with no engineers - argue that metric units should be dumbed down to old pre-metric words for the public in the USA. This dumbing down then spreads to other parts of the world as a sort of retrofit from the Volkswagen marketing departments in the USA. By the way, Porsche had visited Henry Ford in the early 1930s to study Ford's assembly-line techniques and from Ford he acquired the ideas of standardized interchangeable parts. Ford had pioneered this area as an early member of the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) where amongst other things he was involved in standardising on hexagonal nuts in preference to the square nuts that had been used previously on agricultural machines such as ploughs. As I said, poor old Ferdinand Porsche would be most unhappy at this turn of events where his much preferred metric system was being dumbed down for no other purpose that to satisfy some backwards person who may - or may not - actually exist. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216 Geelong, Australia 61 3 5241 2008 Pat Naughtin is manager of http://www.metricationmatters.com an internet website that focuses on the many issues, methods and processes that individuals, groups, companies, and nations use when upgrading to the metric system. Contact Pat Naughtin at [EMAIL PROTECTED] On 2007 07 8 5:32 AM, "Carleton MacDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On my 1999 Saab 9-5, the speedometer shows miles in large green numbers, and km in smaller orange numbers, both lit at night. This is a lot better than most other cars sold in the US where the km is obscure to the point of almost being invisible, there only to follow the law. The odometer is in miles but a friend of mine who is a Saab mechanic knows an undocumented hack that involves plugging something into the OBD port and changing a setting that will then make it display km. Saabs sold in Canada have km only, as there is no law up there requiring miles inside the speedometer. That is the only real difference between the US and Canadian models; where there were different standards, Saab followed the stricter one, meaning the car meets the requirements of both countries. Wish we didn't have to go through all this. Carleton _____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> On Behalf Of Martin Vlietstra Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 13:10 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:39014] RE: How to switch a 2007 Passat to km/h? Has your VW dealer been any use? The odometer on my 2001 VW Golf (UK model) has an LCD display that shows miles. I understand that there is a way to set it to kilometers, but that it is in a secret garage handbook somewhere. On the other hand, my the handbook in my wife's 2004 Renault Scenic explains how to flip between metric and imperial units. Ideally, we will change the speedometer to show km/h when we next cross the Channel to France. _____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> On Behalf Of Remek Kocz Sent: 07 July 2007 17:30 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:39013] How to switch a 2007 Passat to km/h? Volkswagen tries too hard to appear American, and as a result they end up with cars that are overwhelmingly USC. The 2007 Passat and Jetta have temps in F printed on the coolant dial and on the climate control switch. The speedometer is only in mph. All this is annoying, but it's compensated by the electronic display that can display outside temps in C, calculate fuel efficiency in km/L or L/100 km, use 24h time, etc. That pesky speedometer is the only major problem. Does anyone have an idea how to force it to calibrate to km/h? This is a first car I've come across that doesn't have a dual-display speedometer, and the instructions don't mention switching to km/h. I visit Canada frequently, so displaying my speed in km/h is critical. Thanks, Remek
