# Drove 6,500 miles round trip to pick up my 2015 Beetle (Yeah! I really did)



## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Drove 4,500 miles round trip to pick up my 2015 Beetle (Yeah! I really did)*

Alright, after having asked the Vortex webmaster over and over to allow me access to re-post in the forums, I had to create a new account after not hearing back from them. I’ve been inactive for a couple of years now and it seems that my old account was either suspended or frozen for inactivity. 
I've been a long time Vortex fan, but with 3 kids, a full time shift job, and owning a small business, I seldom have any free time for myself - much less to post anything on this forum. I love checking in on the forums to get ideas and updates from fellow V'Dubbers. I especially like seeing pics of people's cars and the mods or updates that they do to their vehicles. It’s the sort of VOYEURISM effect that keeps me checking in constantly to see what’s new with others and their VW’s. With that in mind, I see that ‘The Beetle’ forum has very little if any updates and especially very few pics. I will try to post as many pics as I can of my car as I go along updating and showing off my Baby ( a 2015 1.8 Beetle – stock). Here’s a pic I took of it when I picked it up from the VW dealer in Medford Oregon.







I bought this beauty back in early April of this year in Medford, Oregon. (I live in the Houston area). It was last year’s model and no one had picked it up, so I started haggling with them looking for a great deal. Many e-mails and phone calls later – I found myself driving out to Oregon with my co-pilot (my Mom) and my trade in, my 2015 Jetta that I had purchased not more than 7 months earlier. 








Here's me and my co-pilot at the dealer. My mom can't drive a stick, she only went with me because my son couldn't go and she loves long trips just like I do. Plus it was a good excuse for her to visit my brother who lives in Los Angeles. That was our pit stop. 






Here's the Jetta being left behind and the New Beetle ready for it's long trip back to Houston. Sorry Jetta, but it's not you - it's me. You understand, right? 






I purchased the Jetta on a last minute whim. I had a 2007 Saturn Ion that was on its last leg. The transmission was going out so I decided I had had enough of fixing it and needed something that was not going to give me any heartaches. I bought the Jetta back in September of last year, but with it being a ‘2.slow’, it gnawed at me in the back of my mind that I really wanted one of the new 1.8 Turbo engines like the one I had bought for my son back in April of last year. He had just turned 18 and just his ‘old man’ he wanted a VW for his first car. I really liked the way the new 1.8 engines handled, so climbing up in age at 47, I decided that I wanted a Beetle AGAIN. So off I went to get one. (Mid-life crisis??? Who knows?)


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

To continue - below are a few pics I took through the windshield of the road trip back from Oregon (mainly Mt Shasta). Then there's a pic of the beetle in it's new home just after I arrived home from the grueling drive. It had to be spotless before I could go to sleep. :screwy:


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Miss You ................*

Here's a pic of my Jetta I left at the Oregon dealership. 
I kept and eye on it to check its progress to see when it would sell. It was still up for sale up until a couple of weeks ago. I really miss that car, but what are you gonna do?.........mid-life crisis and all. I would have liked to have driven by a couple of times to check up on it, but it's 2,600 miles away.


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## Hufeisen (Jul 18, 2006)

Fun story! Good luck with your new Beetle :beer:


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## Steve Beetle (Mar 23, 2016)

Congratulations on the Beetle! Love the color.
Awesome story to what degree VW Fanatics will go to...2600 miles wow!


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## drtechy (Jun 3, 2009)

I love taking road trips to buy cars! That's part of the fun for me. 

Congrats on the Beetle! 

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## turbokirby (Sep 5, 2014)

Awesome drive I am sure.... Do I spot a Chevelle or Nova on the other side?


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

turbokirby said:


> Awesome drive I am sure.... Do I spot a Chevelle or Nova on the other side?


Nope, not a Chevelle or Nova on the other side of my garage. What you actually see a 1985 Jetta that I drove back from Anaheim about 5 years ago (another long story.......and Forum) Seems like I just can't be happy with a car if I can't buy it from far away and have a road trip to go pick it up. Surprisingly enough, my Mom was also my co-pilot when I flew out LA to pick it up. Pic below. I mostly keep it in storage and bring it out every once in while.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Back to the Beetle...................*

So, living in the Houston area, you have to have tinted windows. I've always loved the look of a car with clear windows where you see the interior, but in south Texas, that's too much of a price to pay while driving around with the scorching sun beating down on you. With that said, the first thing I did was have it tinted professionally. Here's a pic of the Beetle just after I arrived from the tint shop and drove up to my wife's flower shop. 



Oh, yeah. As I first mentioned, the flower shop is on of the reasons why I have very little time for myself. Come visit her flower shop in the Clear Lake area (yeah, yeah, I know - cheap advertising, ploy)


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Adding on................*

One of the things I had to have on the Beetle was a spoiler. I always that felt it gave the car more of a sporty look, so I got an inexpensive one on ebay and had a body shop paint it and install it for me. I went for the split colors - black on top and yellow on the bottom and the guy at the shop pulled through. It came out awesome. All-in-all it cost me around $650 total to have it painted and installed. Lots of pics below......









I also installed a 'VOCHO' emblem on the trunk myself. For those of you who don't understand, it's the Spanish nickname for 'Bug' or 'Beetle'. It's definitely a Mexican thing.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*More Slight Mods*

Moving on......I'm not into modding my cars. I prefer stock. When you get to my age, you don't look cool cruising in a dropped Beetle with coilovers (just like 50 year-old guys with pony tails and bald spots don't look cool - no offense to anyone). When I purchased my Jetta I knew it didn't have a temp gauge so I spent $365 bucks and bought one of those VIDI vent gauges. 



Only I chickened-out and did not place it in the vent for fear of breaking anything, so I put it in the cubby hole in front of the shifter. After I traded in my Jetta, I found myself with a spare VIDI gauge and it sat around for a couple of months until.............. I found that the temperature reading on the gauge cluster in the Beetles is not accurate. If any of you have ever noticed, it never moves from 195°F even when you're sitting in stop-and-go traffic in the middle of Summer. 
With that in mind, I put my gauge in the cubby of my Beetle and started tracking the actual temperature.





If anyone is curious, cruising temp is about 185°F and I've not seen it go past 197°F while idling in hot weather.


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## drtechy (Jun 3, 2009)

That ^^^ worked out really well!! Nice way to add that to the car

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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Boom Baby !!!!!!!!!!!!*

Got home yesterday to find this in my mail......




I've always had a sticker on the back of most my cars to set me apart from the rest. I bought a sticker sometime ago on eBay, but I chickened out after I showed it to a few people in the office. 



Yeah, you have to understand history and VW's in order to get the joke, but some people aren't on the same page as the rest of us. :facepalm:

So what do guys think......................? 
I had it custom made from some guy on eBay. I love it. 




Here's a picture of the sticker in the daylight in the parking lot at my job. 
I got overly excited when I went to apply it to the glass. I laid it gently on the surface and stood back to look at it, then when I went to make the fine adjustments I realized the it had adhered to the glass so I had to leave it where I first set it.
It's slightly off centered, but not to worry - I GOT 2 OF THEM. 


Next 'MOD' I have in mind is a new radio. Still trying to decide which one I want to buy. This is one I've been eyeing on eBay. I might just go with a factory OEM RCD510.


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## Steve Beetle (Mar 23, 2016)

*sticker*

The Hencho en Mexico is perfect and positioned just right.
So when you bought the Beetle did you get an amazing deal driving that far and add-ons still have you below what you could have bought one locally for? Just curious


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Was it worth the drive???*



Steve Beetle said:


> The Hencho en Mexico is perfect and positioned just right.
> So when you bought the Beetle did you get an amazing deal driving that far and add-ons still have you below what you could have bought one locally for? Just curious


The best deal I could get in the Houston area was about $19,900 for a base model 2016. As I stated in the beginning of my post, I'm not too interested in mod's so I was ok with just about anything as long as it has A/C. 
I got this one in Oregon for $16,000. The drive makes it worth more to me. It's a memory that will last forever. 
You quickly forget the day you picked up your new car from your local dealer, but you NEVER forget a long road trip for a new Beetle.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Yet more addons..........*

Got this in the mail today. As you can see, I add small things to my Beetle. It will probably stay mostly stock since I don't have the time or desire to do any major modifications (yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, getting old is a bitch) 



And after a couple of seconds of peeling off the adhesive................



Man it looks nice inside my car! No wonder I look forward to getting in it to go to work everyday. You don't see this kind of interior in a Honda Accord, or a Chevy Malibu........


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Nice REAR-END Lady..........................*

Yet more addons. Got these a couple of days ago from eBay. $35 well spent, I'd say.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Turn up the Radio!!!!!!!*

Got this a few days ago via UPS. 



Then after a few couple of hours of installation..................



Finally ended up with this.........





Couple of things about these Android radios,
The hardest part of the install was taking off the trim piece around the radio. You have to be really careful or you'll end up cracking it and it seems to be a hard to find item. 
The radio reception is not as good as I hoped, but as long as I can get NPR (yeah...........I know I'm old). 
The DVD feature is awesome! (says my 9 year old daughter) 
The GPS is ok, and over all it's pretty cool what radios can do now-a-days. Way different than the cassette radios I grew up with.
The factory radio will be stored in case this ones craps out. If that happens, I now know how to install a radio in these Beetles - had to learn how or pay $200 at the radio shops for an install.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Been very busy lately, so onward with more add-ons*

Installed this on my driver side mirror. 



Notice the big black truck in the blind spot? I do NOW. :what:
I did not have much luck locating blind side mirror inserts that I liked, so I found a pair of these on eBay for about $3 bucks. 
It may not hold up that long, but I need the extra view after having almost hit the car next to me twice now. 
And when you're in Truck Country, you better watch where you step. They don't like little cars around here. Especially if they're not made in 'Merika
If anyone has a link to some inserts that are stylish and affordable, by all means please let me know.


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## Rottgrub (Dec 5, 2016)

That yellow is just awesome. I seriously considered the yellow until my wife bought a bright yellow Fiat Abarth. =)


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

Rottgrub said:


> That yellow is just awesome. I seriously considered the yellow until my wife bought a bright yellow Fiat Abarth. =)


I agree. My daughter has a yellow Fiat, but I always felt that their yellow was too dark for my taste. Below is a side-by-side pic I took of her car and mine, and I insist that the VW yellow is a bit more easier on the eyes.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*New shoes*

So I finally decided to go with the more 'retro' look. I removed to spoke rings that the factory installed and found some trim rings and decided to give 'em a go. Looks a bit more stylish ( I hope). 



Remember-these may not be 'MODS' compared to some of you guys that go all out with super mods, but at my age, meh..............


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## Rottgrub (Dec 5, 2016)

Definitely like the rings better than the spokes. Very sharp!


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Oh yeah!!!!! Me like............*

Alright, back once more with an update on my Beetle. I pulled the trigger and finally painted my rims. What do you guys think? 





I took a trip to California and had my friend paint them while I was gone. 
Below are some ideas of how I wanted to use the rings and the hub cap. Couldn't decide on which ones I should use. 
The factory center cap seemed to steal much of the luster and it covered too much of the rim for what I was looking for.







Below is a rolling pic my son took of the Beetle as we drove home from the body shop with no rings or caps. When I got home I finally decided on the outer ring with a VW cap in the center and black bolt covers. 
The center cap is being held in by Gorilla glue until I can find something more permanent. Any suggestions? 



I'm going for tasteful Mods. I hope I'm not over doing it. Feedback is welcome if it's tasteful as well. eace: 

:laugh::laugh:


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## jestmaty (Jan 15, 2017)

Katy Tx approved! Beautiful


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## tobiascuypers (Jun 22, 2017)

What radio model is that? It looks awesome! 

Did you need any additional antennas for the GPS?


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## Vwguy026 (May 1, 2013)

Nice man congrats on the bug!!


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## lightflyer1 (Jan 2, 2006)

I had one of the android radios in my 2003 Excursion diesel. I liked what it could do but the radio reception was not good. No HD radio either. I went with a RNS315 replacement this time, with backup camera. Most of my stuff is streaming music and Google nav over the phone. The voice directions of Google nav over the stereo is great!


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## michaelodonnell123 (Nov 17, 2017)

*Great story and pics*

Looks like you are having a lot of fun.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*Finally hit the road (again)*

I've been out for quite some time, so I thought I'd update this post. 
I just returned from a 5,628 mile trip to the mountains with my son. Below is the money shot I was hoping to get. Looks like it turned out pretty well, what do you think?
I will update with more pics as time permits as well as where we drove to.

(Run Forrest, Run !!!!!!!!!!)


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*🎵🎵 Hit the Road Jack...... 🎵🎵*

So, last year my son and I decided to take a cross-country road trip. We decided to go in his Golf. We drove as far east as Nashville, TN and as far west as Seattle, WA then down to Los Angeles and up again towards Colorado and back to Houston. That was just over 6,000 miles in all and we had a blast, so much so that he wanted to go again, but this time we wanted to travel more of the back roads in the mountain states (CO, UT, AZ, NM, NV, & CA). 
But first things first - I had to get a bra for the Beetle.



Here is my son's money shot of his car in Estes Park, CO last year.



Some time ago I installed an Android radio as you can see in my previous post, but it crapped out so I got an OEM Nav unit, but of course I wasn't too happy with that so I gave the Android unit another shot. Only this time I got a 3 year warranty on it. I installed the back up camera myself. That helps out quite a bit especially with the small window view on our Beetles. 






And watching movies on a long trip really helps the time pass by. 



Especially when your road looks like this.............


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*So where did we go you ask?.......................*

We started out in Colorado and drove mostly back roads which we had only seen on maps, but never driven.
We started in Estes Park again, 



...down to Monarch Pass...................




....down to Ouray.....



We even went down North Americas most dangerous highway.....


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

The high-lite of our trip was the drive up and down Gateway highway in western Colorado. We take way too many pictures to post here, but below are a few samples of the beauty we enjoyed driving that road. 









Like I said, way too many pics to post, but I'll post as many as I can when ever I get a free moment.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

Just a couple more pics.................



I had to get this one in. Notice the motor home on the right of the pic (Awsome !!)


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

Off to Telluride, Co. - Beautiful..


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

*More miles, more pics*

After seeing the western side of Colorado we headed down to Cortez in the 4 corners area. There we headed towards Forrest Gump point near Monument Valley where hung out for a while taking pictures and enjoying the sunset. 





When the sun goes down and there are no tourist around, it's peaceful and tranquil out in the desert. That's what being on the road is all about. 
See that white spec on top of the pic below? That's the moon. eace:



The following morning we set out for the 4 corners where you can stand in 4 states at the same time. 
We found a nice van in the parking lot and after my son finished drooling over it, we took a few more pics for the memories.





From there we moved further west through the vast desert and landed in Zion National park. Very hot out there, but the view was breath-taking.





We ended up in Sin City (Las Vegas) only because we found a hotel room for only $38 bucks in a downtown casino. :laugh:




I'm not much of a gambler so we only ate there and slept for the night, then off we went towards Area 51 on the ExtraTerrestrial Hwy with a quick stop in at the Little 'Ale-Inn'.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

Turns out, there's not too much to see in Nevada. Just hundreds and hundreds of miles of desert. Lots of desert. We didn't spot any UFO's or low flying objects so we kept on treking through Nevada all the way up to Reno where we spent the night at another hotel/casino. 
Spotted this neat bug in Reno near the In-N-Out Burger joint on the freeway. 



And no, I don't gamble so we just slept, had breakfast and moseyed on down to Virginia City where we did some sight seeing and a little shopping. 
Somehow we ended up spending over $100 in old LP records. :screwy:





Then off to Lake Tahoe....



One note here..... While in route to Tahoe, we had to climb a few thousand feet, so inevitably that means that the engine gets a little warm. I did notice, though that the temp gauge on the dash read a constant 195°F, but my OBD2 gauge did not agree. I think VW puts the dash reading in there just for show. I would hate to think that it will not give you a real time reading when your engine is about to boil over.


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## El-Vocho (Aug 9, 2016)

Not too much to see in Tahoe, just a big lake and lots of tourist everywhere. The scenery is beautiful though. 



We soon found ourselves heading to Sacramento and south bound on 'The 5' down to L.A. to visit my brother and his new baby boy (cute little guy).

I spot a future VW Enthusiast....





Why the T-shirt over the driver's seat? My son started a fight when he turned on my seat warmer in the middle of the dessert and burnt my @$$ off. Las Vegas was 117°F and finding out a bit too late that your seat warmer has been unsuspectingly turned on by your giggling son left a challenge accepted that he wished he had never started. I got him back really good when he least expected it. And then he got me back when I least expected, and then I got him back, and so on, and so on, for over 5,000 miles. 


After some rest we headed back home on I-10 for a grueling 24 hour non-stop drive to Houston. 
We had a blast enjoying each other's company and creating memories. Maybe next year I'll be posting more pics and more memories.

Enjoy everyday that you can, life's too short to buy a fast car so you can get somewhere faster than the guy next you. 
Take your VW on the road and enjoy the view and each other. :thumbup:


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## schagaphonic (Aug 24, 2008)

Great pictures! The ones of SW Colorado are familiar territory for me.

I did a 2400 mile round trip in my Beetle, solo (CO to IN) and became pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the seats and ride were. Added a quilt to the trunk area to reduce road noise. I added a 2ft. square chunk of lambs wool to the bottom seat cushion and wrapped the back with my fleece jacket to keep the sweat off my back.
My 2.5L, 5 speed averaged 33mpg for the trip. Also a pleasant surprise.


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## jtns28 (Jun 19, 2014)

great road trip stories, thanks! as much as i like my roomy and reliable 2013 passat s 2.5, getting a beetle is gnawing at me...


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