VW1300 motoring

Sir,

At the risk of boring you and your readers with another Volkswagen eulogy, may my wife and I present the last 12 months’ motoring statistics of our sunroofed, export-equipped VW1300.

From new, mileage run: 12,038 miles (we’re average motorists).

Gasoline used (94 octane “sludge”): 358 gallons.

Miles per gallon: 33.63 (low due to many stop/start journeys – but one 2,000 miles trip to Rome and return).

Oil used: Nil (except for changes, natürlich).

Mechanical failures and replacements: Nil (actually we have purchased two dust caps and a new wash-leather).

With gasoline costing 2s. 7d. for approximately 2 1/4 gallons, our overheads have been:

Insurance, comprehensive, maximum N.C.B.;

Servicing;

Sundries, including Autostrada and Dartford Tunnel tolls, licensing and registration;

Depreciation;

Interest lost on capital utilised;

Giving an inclusive cost per mile of less than 2 1/2d. This for two months in England, and ten month’s usuage in Germany.

You will have heard the praise before! Reliability, economy, and the knowledge that you are driving the Volks, not vice versa. We solemnly promise to buy a British Car as soon as the price, quality and utter dependability are matched in an equivalent product.

May we invite statistics through the columns of your magazine on equivalent English models of 1,300 c.c. category? Isn’t there a model blurbed as the “best in the world in its class”? Many thanks for an individual, intelligent motoring magazine. More power to your pens.

B.F.P.O., Germany. Colin R. Morgan.