As a college graduation present my parents bought me a new red Volkswagen. They actually did this as I began my senior year at the University of New Mexico studying electrical engineering.
I guess they had faith in me that I would successfully complete my senior year, and it was a welcome replacement for the Mercury. Younger readers may not know how basic a 1964 VW was. It had one instrument, a speedometer/odometer. It had
idiot lights for oil pressure and generator function. It did not even have a gas gauge. These VWs had ten gallon gas tanks, with a reserve lever that gave access to the last gallon. You were supposed to note the odometer reading and
know how far it would go before it ran out of gas. If you made a mistake and it did run out of gas, the reserve was there for an additional 32 miles. So it got approximately 32 miles per gallon, which in the day of 36¢ per gallon made for
a very cheap ride. It had 36 horse power and had a top speed was 72 MPH.
I had this car when I moved to Minneapolis for my first job. (See Silicon Valley / Fairchild http://www.afewthingsilearned.com/408736981 section of this blog for a brief explanation of that mistake.) The way that the
heater in a VW worked was simply to blow the air that cooled the engine into the passenger compartment. When the outside air temperature was below zero, saying that this was inadequate is a major understatement. It also wouldn’t start if
the outside temperature was +13 deg. F or below so I had to walk to work many days. So my solution to that issue was to buy a Corvette. OK, that isn’t exactly true, I really wanted a Corvette and I could afford one being single and essentially
working two jobs at Honeywell.