Hello all, maybe about to become a very late bay owner.

On the contrary. Might as well say what everyone (mostly) is thinking. Totally fine and helpful before the purchase.

IMO though, EVERYTHING is inferior to a 70's Late Bay. Even your Moggie Minor.

 

No need to apologise, not offended in the slightest, the comment wasn't aimed at yourself, just an observation.

I have personally found the VW "scene" for what it's worth to be full of quite a lot of obnoxious type people who seem to think anything out of their extremely tight subset interest of no value. So you have that lot! Then you have all the greedy vultures attached to the "scene" who try to ensure everything is priced similarly to gold bullion. Why is an utterly perfect museum display quality Morris Minor from 1949 worth £15k on a very good day, but a 1949 VW Beetle in similar condition worth £80k+? And don't get me started on parts... it's not just scarcity driving prices, it's greed too.

I've had various VW's my whole life. I like all sorts of interesting VW cars, both classic and newer, definitions don't matter to me and blur anyway when discussing the same core vehicle made over a period of 60 years! I've owned a Mexican Beetle, they were better quality than the 70's beetles, but used to get attitude from the German beetle guys. I currently also have a 1954 VW, and the attitude of a lot of my fellow early VW owners is that anything past about 1957 (or August '54 for some!) is just crappy junk. (Although pre August 55 beetles really are far superior in build to everything after!) As for buses, German split owners generally seem to look down on bays, and of course Brazilian splits too! German bay owners think Brazilian buses are rubbish made for peasants. The water cooled guys think all aircooled stuff is junk and vice versa.

So that's the VW "scene" for you, peace all.

 

FTFY.

'So that's the "Human Race" for you'

 

I don’t think there’s much of the old type scene any more where generally it was just a group of like minded people who were just chilling and not that bothered what you had.

The VW scene seams to be all about T5,6 owners getting dunk by lunch and shouting at the kids whilst trying to out do each others stereos

but then I am a grumpy old man

 

Trust me it's not just vdub scene cliques in any other classic car scenes as well

 

I totally agree with you on that Matty the scene has changed for the worse you've only got to visit a show and see the chavs abound Busfest ? Chav Fest more like

 

I do like the way you say it exactly as it is . The majority on ‘The Late bay ‘ forum have Late bays like wise there is an Earlybay forum, a Brazilian forum, one for T25s and etc etc . Nothing mechanically is the same and apart from similar looks they are just odd and different . There is just little interest on here for them

 

Look at it this way, if when you see it you smile , if when you drive it you smile, who cares what it is , it's doing the right thing,

My 74 has earlyish bumpers , big badge on the front , my bus my way

Enjoy

 

This is a forum called The Late Bay so I dunno what people expect.
If I were thinking of buying Brazilian bay and was warned that the 70's van owners mostly wouldn't see it as the same, I'd be pleased to get that information.
I'd buy one anyway if that was what I wanted. I stumbled into this just trying to keep the family interested in camping, not to be part of anything.

 

Fascinating and at least in part proving my point. You don't seem to see the Brazilian Kombi as the same vehicle as yours at all. Whereas I, as someone yet to personally own a VW bus, but who has been interested in the history and development of early VW & buses, from inception with the first barn door buses, then through all the following variants of splits, bays, and the branches of unique local evolution in various parts of the world, to the very last to be built in December 2013. I see them all as an ongoing development/evolution of a single vehicle type!

I don't look with horror at the cludge of water cooled parts making up the later Brazilians, neither do I look down on them for using a slightly thinner gauge of steel sheet, or slightly less attention to detail in the build as they are serving a lower cost, utilitarian need in their local market. They're all just interesting to me.

I naively hadn't realised when I came here, that the site was specific to late model, German buses! So thought you'd all just love a really late bay window, if only I'd realized they fell lower in the pecking order of the bus cast system and were considered untouchables! Be careful, I think late German bays are only considered one up from the bottom by the 23 window Samba elite who none of us are worthy to lick the feet of lol!! (hopefully you'll get my point here )

 

Maybe the forum needs renaming to the late German bay then, as the later Brazilian Kombi is the latest bay after all!

 

Anyway, I'll most likely move along now as I still don't have any bus at all, least of all a late German bay. I'll be back in the event that I do end up with a late German bus rather than a Split or lowly South American offering.

Peace all

 

Why? There is an €arly Bay forum, a Late Bay forum and a Brazilian Bay forum, you can join any one you choose but don't be surprised if they are biased towards a particular model.

 

I personally don’t have a problem with any of what you said, all busses have their place in history and come with their own fan groups and they all have pros and cons.

I think the issue here though is that yes you’re right, barn door, split, e arly bay, late bay all represent development on a consistent concept by vw. From ‘80 though the development line becomes t25, t4, t5 etc and what happened in Brazil really isn’t “development “ of the bay, but rather a way of making something very cheap for a particular market using whatever they could get. In fact in a lot of areas it went backwards, no heating, no sound insulation, no rust protection etc. I do think that some folks new to the scene assume that Brazilian busses must represent some sort of development/ improvement over a German bay just‘cause they are newer when in fact they don’t.

 

Was about to say welcome to the best VW forum around…..



…but has he left before I had the chance?

 

Snoooz ya loooz.