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From: wpc@po.CWRU.Edu (William P. Claspy) Newsgroups: rec.autos.vw Subject: The Grand VW Car Name List Date: 13 Jan 1993 14:11:14 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) Message-ID: <1j17u2INNru4@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> Lines: 524

Guess it's time to repost the Grand List. Rest assured I'm keeping new additions to add to the third edition! Keep 'em coming!

Happy reading (and thanks to all you who've submitted in the past!)

---------- So, here it is! The grand polling of Volkswagen names. I've kept most of the header intact on each messege so you know who it's coming from:

From: wpc@po.CWRU.Edu (William P. Claspy) Subject: volkswagen names Date: Mon Jul 29 15:00:16 1991

Hello all-

I was puttering around this past weekend in my '71 bug with my older sister (who donated said vehicle, in sad shape, to me a few years back). She, being of such mind, named her happy yellow bug shortly after she purchased it and ever since, Gretchen has been so called by all members of our family.

Anyhow, after telling a few bug stories (don't we all have some...) I told her about the discussions we hold here over the wires and fiber optic cables. She suggested asking the rest of you all for the names of your Volkswagen vehicles. So why don't you send me the names of your VW's via e-mail, I'll compile if there's enough response and post a summary. Feel free to include the story behind the name if you'd like.

Bill

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Date: Tue, 30 Jul 91 09:21:24 EST From: dgren@wpi.WPI.EDU (David Gerard Grenache) Subject: Re: volkswagen names >Newsgroups: rec.autos.vw Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

I call my Golf "Gigi"....I was with some friends one day and the name sort of just popped out and it stuck!

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From: ibmsupt!ibmpa!lorax.aix.kingston.ibm.com!jag@uunet.UU.NET (Jay Goldberg) Subject: VW Names Date: Tue, 30 Jul 91 10:08:23 EDT X-Organization: Resource One, Inc. (IBM Corporation)

Bill:

I used to have a '73 VW Fastback named Max. Max was the coolest car ever and was the only car who ever really communicated a name to me.

However, now I have an '86 VW Jetta GLI, and I'm pretty sure his name is Dieter.

The one thing for sure is, the VW's I've owned are male. I had a Chevette that was definitely a female (and a timid one at that), and a Honda that was androgynous, but my VW's have all been male.

Good luck with your list!

Jay

-- Jay A. Goldberg DOMAIN: jag@axion.attmail.com Who is Resource One, Inc. UUCP: uunet!ibmsupt!jag John Galt?

errno.h: #define EIEIO 237 /* Old MacDonald had a farm */

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Date: 30 Jul 1991 12:32:07 GMT From: sharon@minster.york.ac.uk Message-Id: <swordfish.680877130@minster.york.ac.uk>

in reply to you news on beetle names, I have called my sweetie "SCORCH"

he was so called this because he is very shiny and bright red!! it is a 72 1300 beetle, I have put as much crome on as I can "A Very Shiny Bug"

sharon --------------------

Subject: VW name Date: Tue, 30 Jul 91 12:13:53 EDT Message-Id: <18706.680890433@MAPS.CS.CMU.EDU> From: Mike.Fox@MAPS.CS.CMU.EDU

Your article reminded me of a good laugh that my girlfriend and I had over the naming of my (79 diesel) Rabbit. I had just bought the car last summer and Janet insisted that I had to give it a name. So reluctantly I thought about it. What I did was I tried to think of something that was about the same shade of light green as the car. The first thing that I thought of was a kiwi (fruit), although I don't know why grape or watermelon weren't higher up the list (they just don't have the right car-name-ring to them). So Kiwi it was, and then Janet said "hey don't your friends Dan and Monique have a pet called Kiwi?". She was right and not only that but we remembered that the pet was (you guessed it) a rabbit (maybe you had to be there).

-mike

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From: mjh@cs.utexas.edu (Michael J. Hall) Date: Mon, 29 Jul 91 16:13:17 CDT Subject: VW Names

My roommate's '64 Bug is named Dieter, a good strong German name. A friend of mine had a urine yellow bug named Wee-wee. BTW, little kids will sometimes run up to Deiter and yell "Herbie!" since he looks like the one from the Disney movie, _The Love Bug_.

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Date: Mon, 29 Jul 91 17:00:55 PDT From: shaff@rpal.rockwell.com (Mike Shaff) Subject: volkswagen names Reply-To: shaff@rpal.rockwell.com

ciao,

I have a VW Westphalia (camper) whose name is Ophalia. The name comes from the obvious Shakespeare character.

Should be a cool list if enough people contribute.

mas

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Date: Tue Jul 30 12:34:00 1991 From: PGHEIT01@ULKYVX.BITNET (Fred the Ranger) Subject: volkswagen names

My friend calls my '77 bus the "TARC bus of doom" (TARC is the public transportation here in Louisville) I just call it my hippymobile.

Not the most humerous one around, but I like it. :) pH Fred

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Date: Mon Jul 29 23:23:18 1991 From: ames!claris!voder!nsc!doudna@gatech.edu (David Doudna) Subject: Re: volkswagen names .

My '71 yellow Squareback was the "Bananamobile" complete with a caped SuperBanana mascot which clung to the rearview mirror. After I cut the roof off, it was also known as the "peeled banana".

My current '84 white Rabbit is sometimes called "Alice" (recall the Jefferson Airplane song) but the name doesn't stick as well. The water pumpers are still too ordinary compared to a type III.

-David Doudna AMA BAM DoD: pi Honda: CL350K3 doudna@nsc.nsc.com ABATE of California Yamaha: XV750W

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Date: Tue Jul 30 14:39:41 1991 From: Volney.Spalding@Corp.Sun.COM (Volney Spalding) Subject: Bug names

Bill,

My '71 bug is named Ernie--more or less after the Sesame Street character of the same name (they are both Orange!). Even though I don't own him anymore, Ernie is still in the family. I gave him to my dad becuase I couldn't bear to sell him to some klutz who wouldn't take care of him. He served me faithfully for 6 years with multiple trips between Seattle and San Francisco. The last few trips were with a bad transaxle shaft (input or output, I can't remember) that howled loudly the whole way. Fortunately my dad has the time and the temperament to change the transmission.

Thanks,

Volney Spalding Sun Microsystems

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Date: Tue Jul 30 22:02:32 1991 From: peters@ee.udel.edu Subject: Re: volkswagen names >Newsgroups: rec.autos.vw

Name: TB Type: red '65 convertable bug

Story: About a week before my brother bought it, the owners dog decided he wanted to see the inside, (or something) and bit a large hole in the side of the roof. (Almost a foot in diameter) So the bug became 'Torn Bug'. The name is also great play with... TB also stood for 'TuBerculosis' after a major hail storm put lots of 1 inch holes all over the new roof we put on him. Or just plain 'The Bug'.

Name: Red Bug Type: red (gee, really) '66 bug

Name: Blue Bug Type: guess... '70 bug

Story: I wanted to come up with really good names for these cars, but couldn't, and while I was searching, we had to call them something.....

( these might not be bugs, but they were also members of our extended family

Name: Marion Type: Black '59 Mercedes Benz Story: Marion the librarian - 'cause it was so quiet

Name: Henry Thomas Type: '62 Studebaker station wagon Story: There's a hole in your gas tank, dear Henry, dear Henry, ... Patch it up then dear Thomas, dear Thomas, dear Thomas..... )

-- Shirley Peters peters@asel.udel.edu U. of Delaware/A.I. duPont Institute peters%udel.edu@udelvm +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ I'd rather be sleeping!

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Date: Tue Jul 30 22:09:00 1991 From: JAN%DEV7D%MDCBBS.COM:JAN%DEV7D@gatech.edu (JAN%DEV7D) Subject: volkswagen names

Wife's red GTI, licence plate ending in 666 is named the RED RIDER (we were gonna call it Damian or Red Devk until the tags with 666 came and figure that was sufficient devilish).

Haven't figured one out yet for my Yellow Corrado.

JV

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Date: Wed Jul 31 01:37:31 1991 From: UD180274@VM1.NoDak.EDU ("Roger A. Huggins") Subject: Re: volkswagen names

On the naming of cars...

My car ('79 rabbit) doesn't really have a given name per se, although various terms of endearment (honey, sugar, babe) are often used. Between my Dad and I, we've had 4 rabbits, and have defaulted to color identification. Right now, I have Tanrabbit. Dad has Redrabbit. Bluerabbit and Yellowrabbit are both history. I had once had a stubborn old Datsun that was called just about every four letter word in the book at one time or another! <grin>

A friend of mine had an old ford which he called "Fizzban" (after a character in a book,) and a Nissan Sentra called "Nikki". (Don't know why...)

Have a nice day!

Roger Huggins

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Date: Wed Jul 31 21:36:31 1991 From: fwy@cs.brown.edu (Felix Yen) Subject: Re: volkswagen names

my white '81 Rabbit (gas) is named Alice. i know it's lame, but there it is. her predecessor on the other hand, Gertrude, an old Toyota was beautifully named.

Felix

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Date: Tue Jul 30 08:25:36 1991 From: epmooch!ben@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Rev. Ben A. Mesander) Subject: Re: volkswagen names

My '63 bus is named "Das Boot". It has the fine lines and superb handling of a U-boat.

-- | ben@epmooch.UUCP (Ben Mesander) | "Elvis, you take so many pills, | | ben%servalan.UUCP@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu | how can you feel anything?" | | ...!chinet!servalan!epmooch!ben | --Priscilla Presley

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So here is the Volkswagen Names Results II. Again, I've kept the headers intacts. Enjoy!

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Date: Fri Aug 2 12:38:49 1991 From: zztopman@u.washington.edu (ed) Subject: Re: VOLKSWAGEN NAMES RESULTS!

Hey I have one more to add to the list. I have a '61 VW Bug that I call "ZZ", which named after the band ZZTOP. My friends named it because I only used to play one tape in it, ZZToP's "First Album". I guess it has even rubbed off on me, my login name is ZZTOPMAN. The joke is that the when ZZTOP is playing in the tapedeck it acts like a turbo-charger. Therefore, ZZ will always get to a destination before anything or anyone else.

How's that for a name?

-zztopman.

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Date: Fri Aug 2 14:17:28 1991 From: dor@reef.cis.ufl.edu ("A Knight in White Satin") Subject: Re: VOLKSWAGEN NAMES RESULTS!

Are you still taking names? I missed the original posting, looks like..

'72 Microbus (I'm pretty sure it's a bus...the interior was heavily modified to a camper-like arrangement), light blue.

I named her Freebird...my friends have taken to calling her the "Freedom Van." Right now, though, I call her "broken." My, clutch parts are expensive...

-- Doug Oosting, Univ. of Florida | Istanbul dor@ufl.edu OR dro@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu | -------------------- Cypress School, Cuong Nhu Karate | not Constantinople ska Cadrys ap Dulas o Caeriera, Barony of An Crosaire, Trimaris Fnord!

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Date: Mon Aug 5 12:04:47 1991 From: pz@keps.kodak.com (Paul Czarnecki) Subject: vw names Reply-To: pz@keps.kodak.com

Our '73 bus is named Hildegard. Its a good stout German name and she is a good stout german bus. Some friends have an oragne '78 bus called Gus. Now since Gus is a 13 year old male and Hildegard is a worldy 18 year old female, we have to be very careful not to leave them unchaparoned. We might get little Beetles running around!

pZ pz@keps.kodak.com

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Date: Mon Aug 5 19:23:30 1991 From: ames!ub-gate.UB.com!royko.Chicago.COM!mgm@gatech.edu (Marty Masters) Subject: Re: VOLKSWAGEN NAMES RESULTS!

I missed th original calling for names, but I hope this will add to the merriment of the list. I've had quite a few VW's over the years, and they all had names. Here are a few...

67 Fastback The Red Eye Express... taken from the 4-way flasher, and a John Sebastian song.

69 Ghia Convert Walter (as in Mitty.) I wished it was a 356. Only car I've known that wouldn't go into reverse when a fuse blew (auto-stick/shift) Carried gum and used the tinfoil wrapper more than once!

68 Ghia C. Oscar, walter's lesser known brother

70 Beetle The Batmobile Jr. I was driving late one night and hit a bat which momentarily lodged under the wiper before it woke up and flew away. It was crunched with nearly 300k on it!

72 Super The Heep. The front end was crunched, so I fabricated a fiberglass covered wooden combination onto it after removing the junk. It resembled a CJ-5, and "jeep" in spanish is pronounced "heep".

73 Bus The "Big Orange Bus", or BOB. Drove it for six months without a fuel pump by attaching a line directly from the tank to the carbs, and keeping the tank 1/2 full or more. Using gravity provided comedy... ;-{)

77 Bus It was big. It was brown. So, BBB (Big Brown Bus) became "B cubed" (it was very cubic). So, since the bus was cuban I named it after a Cuban Folksinger named "Nelson", also a street 2 blocks from work. It's other nicknames included Ozzie, Rickey, Mike, Waylon, Half and Full, as in Nelson.

79 Rabbit I bought "Harvey" my chocolate Easter rabbit on that date in April.

71 VW Camper It's name is Vanna White because it is. And it's initials are the same too. (The real Vanna's first car was a beetle convertabile, I b'leeve)

88 Fox Wagon I call it the Vixen, or the Hunchback.

* If you drink, Don't drive; * Martin Masters * * If you siphon, don't swallow. * 1-708-639-5885 * * ...your mileage may vary * mgm@royko.Chicago.COM *

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Date: Tue Aug 6 13:33:07 1991 From: spike@world.std.com Subject: Re: volkswagen names

Well I had a '77 Bus with the license plate BUSERR (Bus Error), but I'm a UNIX nerd...

->Spike

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Date: Sun Aug 11 18:20:50 1991 From: talent@chdasic.sps.mot.com (Steve Talent) Subject: Re: volkswagen names

I once owned a '65 bug. It was named Doris when I bought it and Doris it stayed.

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Subject: Re: VOLKSWAGEN NAMES RESULTS! Reply-To: jdonsbac@reverie.Prime.COM (Jeff Donsbach) Date: Fri Aug 9 21:32:33 1991

I guess I missed the original thread....

My friend has a few VW's. His '84 GTI is named 'Roger' (as in Roger Rabbit) and his Jetta GLI is named 'Morgan' (Fairchild? Yea that's the ticket.. ;-) )

I haven't come up with a name for my Corrado yet. My friends named my old Impulse 'Enterprise' (because of it's spaceship like dash). Maybe the Corrado should be the 'Enterprise-B' or even 'Excelsior'. Nah, doesn't seem to fit..... Maybe 'Gunther' (with dots over the'u' of course)

later, -Jeff

========================== Jeff Donsbach, Computervision, A Prime Computer Company, Bedford, MA UUCP: {decvax|linus|sun}!cvbnet!jdonsbac | Internet: jdonsbac@cvbnet.prime.com "Hermits have no peer pressure" - Steven Wright

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Date: Tue Aug 13 08:34:49 1991 From: hewett%cfassp8@harvard.harvard.edu (Robert Hewett) Subject: vw names

OK, well, standard disclaimers (these are dumb, etc.)

My wife and I called our '76 Rabbit 'bee-bit' because the "RA" had broken off the rear logo...

Our '88 Golf GT we call 'Golfie', using a Hans-and-Franz-ish accent. Sometimes even 'Golfie-wolfie'. But usually just, 'the Golf', with no accent.

rh

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Date: Tue Aug 13 10:03:13 1991 From: nahum%unreal@cs.umass.edu Subject: Re: Volkswagen Names Results II

I have one for you, for the next summary:

A friend of mine knew a guy who had a Jetta named Joan.

Cute, huh?

-Erich

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Erich Nahum A305 Lederle Graduate Research Center Real-Time Systems Group Department of Computer Science nahum@cs.umass.edu University of Massachusetts at Amherst (413) 545-4753

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-- William Claspy Case Western Reserve University wpc@po.cwru.edu