What If...?

 Last month I posted a picture of a car currently decomposing in a field near my house. A few things--first, it's a Volkswagen, which automatically makes me interested. If it were a Caprice Classic, or a Festiva rotting in the field, I might have looked, but I doubt I would have circled back and taken a picture of the car.

Next, the condition of the car, at least from what I could see, looks pretty good, considering... It's in one piece. It's got four tires and all the seats and benches. I did not climb the fence to get a better look because I didn't want to trespass, so I gazed from afar.

Seeing a car like this gets my mind buzzing...

What if?

If this were a VW beetle, just the car without an engine would be worth a couple of thousand dollars. That's still an insane thought to me, when there was a time I could buy a bug for around $500, a bug that ran and was in pretty good shape. This is a type 4 passenger vehicle. They made a square back version, a fast back version, and the one you see in the picture. Like a bug, the engine's in the back and it's air-cooled. It's not as classic as a bug, nor would it be (I imagine...) worth as much as a bug. However, since it is a classic VW, I'm sure it's worth more than it used to be.

What if I were to find the owner and see if he wanted to sell it for a price we could afford (which would be low...)? What if I somehow convinced my wife to allow an antique car to sit in our driveway for who knows how long? I mean, it could be a blast to fix up.

The problem is...I know me. I know that if I did somehow find the owner and he/she somehow sold me the car at a price that I could afford and if I somehow convinced my wife to let me do this (which is probably the toughest part of this "what if" scenario...), I'd probably just let it sit. It would cost money to get it it running and presentable. And when we acquire extra money, we usually use it to buy stuff like food or clothes or to fix the cars we use daily when they break down.

If I ever do take on such a project, I'll keep you posted.