Ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of one day owning a VW Beetle. I remember the days when my younger Brother, Sister and I would play spot the beetle. We would pile into the family car for a trip and the race would begin, the first vee dub I spied I would scream at the top of my lungs SPOT THE BEETLE and point in the direction that I had seen the car. My brother and sister would crane there necks feverishly trying to get a glimpse of my find Where? Where? They would cry, then each in turn they would say Oh I see it… even if they hadn’t. The game would go on for hours each of us screaming spot the beetle upon seeing the shiny vw bug zipping down the road. I can’t imagine how annoying this must have been for our parents but it kept us occupied and we had a lot of fun playing. I knew deep inside that one day I would have my very own beetle.

One sunny September day in 2002 my brother kindly offered to lend me the money to buy a car, I was overjoyed at his generosity as he had just sold his own car and had not yet replaced it. I couldn’t believe my ears here he was offering to get me get a car and go without one himself until I could pay him back, knowing that it could take at least six months for me to get the money together.

My dream was about to be realized. I just knew that there was a Beetle out there waiting for me, all I had to do was find it. We spent the weekend scouring news papers and searching the country side for my dream car. Saturday passed without any luck, we had seen five cars, all of them lemons, sad neglected machines that couldn’t possibly have passed as road worthy.

We were up bright and early on Sunday, we had another six bugs to look at and the clock was really ticking now, I had no way to get to work in the morning, panic was beginning to set in. The hours seemed to whiz by and with them my hopes began to fade. One beetle we looked at was described in the ad as: mechanically sound, no rust and newly painted. We rushed to have a look at the car before it could be snapped up by another buyer. You know the saying “It sounds too good to be true” well what an understatement my heart just sank, this bug was full of rust had very little paint left on it at all and the running board fell off while the owner was showing us the car. I was crushed it was getting late and we only had one car left to look at.

We headed of down the main highway to look at the last car on our list, I was trying desperately to hold on to some form of hope, I was so sure when I left the house that morning that I would have no trouble finding my car I knew in my heart it was out there, somewhere, when all of a sudden out of nowhere there she was just standing by the highway with a for sale sign on her front window, It was as if she had been standing there waiting for me to come and get her. I could just hear the words resounding in my head SPOT THE BEETLE; I knew in an instant that this was the car for me a bright pink vw convertible. My heart quickly sank though as my father drove on past, we had already made a commitment to look at another car. We had to show up, they were expecting us. However as luck or as I prefer to think fate would have it the car had been falsely advertised and was not even a beetle, my heart leapt with joy as we headed back to see the pink bug by the side of the highway.

Once again my hopes were dashed though as my Dad announced that I couldn’t get this car as it had a major oil leak. I was mortified how could we leave such a beautiful little car? My car, just because of a little oil. My search had ended and with a heavy heart I headed home, everyone could see how upset I was and how desperate I was to have this particular car, my brother suggested we phone the Volkswagen Club to see what they thought, dad made the call and spoke to the president of the club. A brilliant idea of my brothers as it turned out. The president of the club informed my father that most cars of that age would have some problems with oil leeks but that Volkswagens are easy to repair and worth the effort. My search was over and we headed back to pick up my car, my dream had become reality.

Mum was helping me choose a name for my car and when she suggested Bella, I thought wonderful, what a perfectly beautiful name for my dream car. As it turned out Bella was in pretty good shape. The oil leek turned out to be nothing but years of neglect, a good clean of the engine fixed the problem.

It’s been a year and a half since I bought Bella and I’ve had loads offers from people wanting to buy her however my answer is always and will always be the same, I wouldn’t sell her for a million dollars… would you sell your dreams?

The joy and gusto of playing spot the beetle has never left me, although these days when I spot a beetle instead of shouting out I wave to my fellow vee dubber to wish them happy trails as I to zip of down the road in my own shiny vw bug.

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