Classic Car Mart Spring 2016 191
Retro Shed: With Paul Guinness
GOING BY (VW) BUS
Thirteen years separate these two American adverts
for passenger-carrying versions of the Volkswagen
Transporter, the fi rst dating from 1977 and promoting
what was offi cially known Stateside as the VW Bus. And it
was an appropriate name, explained the ad: ‘If your family
is a crowd, you have four choices. You can cram them into
a sedan, pay the price of a station wagon, bounce them
around in a van, or take the Bus’. Volkswagen boasted that
the Bus provided ‘almost 70 per cent more room inside
than a full-size domestic station wagon’.
The other advert dates from 1990, by which time the
capacious Volkswagen was a whole lot squarer looking and
- in passenger guise – was now known as the Vanagon. It
might have been little more than a van with windows and
seats, but VW saw it as an alternative to the American
people carriers of the time: ‘Vanagon seats seven and
offers three times more behind-the-rear-seat storage than
the Plymouth Voyager’. The Vanagon, insisted the ad, was
the ideal vehicle for big families and outdoor types: ‘Your
mind will tell you. Your body will tell you. Then your family
will tell you. It’s time to get up and go.’
BIG IN JAPAN
Who remembers this classic ad from the late 1970s, created
to promote the fi rst-generation Volkswagen Golf? Already
massively popular around the world, the Golf even had its
own fan base amongst Japanese buyers, hence this British-
market advert pointing out (in Japanese but with an English
translation) that it was ‘No.1 imported car in Japan’.
This was at a time when Japanese cars were becoming
increasingly popular in Britain thanks to their reliability and
value for money. So surely the Golf must be a brilliant machine
if it was being snapped up by eager Japanese buyers? In truth,
no imported car sold in large numbers in Japan, thanks to
restrictive regulations at the time, making the Golf simply the
best-seller in a tiny sector.
Still, it made for a terrifi c advert. And there was even a
television spin-off version featuring a Golf being dropped from
a great height, with a Japanese actor describing it as ‘very
tough as old boot’.
GO FASTER WITH PECO
When this advert was issued in 1965, London-based Peco
described itself as ‘Britain’s leading industrial and automotive
exhaust system organisation’. It perhaps wasn’t the snappiest of
slogans, but it did explain what the company was all about – and
for fans of aftermarket car accessories, that was great news.
Peco offered a wide range of performance exhausts and
exhaust accessories in the ’60s, helping enthusiasts to make
the most of their performance potential. The range included
the Aintree Special big-bore and twin-pipe silencers, plus the
company’s bespoke Free-Flow system offering ‘more power,
improved economy and a most pleasing and distinctive
exhaust note’.
is a crowd, you have four choices. You can cram them into
around in a van, or take the Bus’. Volkswagen boasted that
capacious Volkswagen was a whole lot squarer looking and
BIG IN JAPAN