Hi Rich,
Yes it was nice to see you in Brighton. As you know the car had one lady owner from new.
Betty was planning a trip to Germany in 1957 and investigated the cost of renting a car for the holiday. It was then pointed out by a friend that she could visit he local VW Dealer in California, order a new car and pick it up as part of VWs "Tourist Scheme" in Germany. That way she'd get her new car, drive it around Germany and France for the duration of her holiday and VW would take care of shipping it to her home in Berkeley, California when the trip was over.
By the time the holiday arrived it was April 1958 and she got the '58 model. Picked up from a dealer in Frankfurt, a girlfriend and Betty had a great holiday.
I'm guessing they spent a lot of the time painting the landscape as Betty is a watercolour artist and still teaches around the North Bay Area at the age of 81.
The car was in Betty's hands for 49 years.."my Baby" she calls it and in that time was her daily driver. She drove it everywhere and covered just about every scenic place on The West Coast.
She said the car was well known in the area. As you can imagine teaching watercolour for many years she had hundreds of pupils and all knew if they spotted Betty's distinctive Black Karmann Coupe she would be nearby painting, they'd just seek her out to pass the time of day.
Betty's husband Frank is now confined to a wheelchair so the time came to replace the Ghia with a car that would enable Frank to make local trips in comfort...and that why I'm the new owner
Here's Betty holding court in San Francisco...she says now she has an anonymous Ford, her friends can't find her so easily.

Edited by user 02 December 2013 19:07:08(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified