Punch Buggy Love

I've always liked the Volkswagen Beetle, both in its original incarnation and the latest model.  I can remember driving with a friend who owned one in high school.  You could see the road through the holes in the floorboards, that's how badly the metal had deteriorated.  Then again, the Canadian climate wasn't kind to those original Bugs so it's rare to find one of the old ones around these parts nowadays.  But there seem to be plenty in the southern U.S. still and last June, I took a picture of this pretty purple one in Portugal (not an original factory colour choice, I'm guessing, but still an excellent shade as far as I'm concerned - it totally fits the groovy vibe of the car!).

Purple punch buggy photographed in Portugal

Apparently several hundred VW cars were destroyed recently in Florida.  It's a sad story, about the end of an old man's hobby, which was clearly a passion for him, and the destruction of several vintage Volkswagen cars: click here to read about it.  It seems a shame that all of those cars were lost, although if you watch the video that accompanies the story (reproduced below), many of them shown don't look like they were salvageable.  But I love the look of old, rusty metal - something about it really appeals to me - so a lot of these images are fascinating to me.