LOL back in the day, if you drove a regular VW and took off in one of these called "semi automatics", when it came time to shift, you would instinctively mash down for a clutch, but instead there was the extra wide break pedal, and end up eating the steering wheel.

I drove one of those when I was a kid, around 12 years old back in the late 60s. My dad had a forwarding company in the UK and he used to arrange shipment of cars bought by GIs in Germany back to the US. Strangely, the cars always seemed to miss the first ship, so he had the cars for a couple of weeks to drive around in... I drove a number of those cars (including Porsches) on private roads and abandoned airfields. The VW Stickshift system was a bit of a mystery at the time, so I'm glad I've finally found out how it works.

That thing is freaky! Those crafty Germans!

Those cars are rad! My wife learned to drive on an old Honda that had a similar trans. She loved it!

I had a 1971 Super Beetle with the auto-stick from 1978 until I traded it in for a brand new 1987 GTI. I always drove it like a 3 speed and accidentally discovered that if I "dropped the clutch" in low gear from a standing start, it would do a burnout on slightly damp streets. Some of the auto-stick equipped cars had the clutch cable tube installed from the factory (my car being one of them). I made a deal with a salvage yard to swap my auto-stick for a manual 4-speed. Did the work myself, even removed the ATF reservoir and the vacuum reservoir. The only tricky part was swapping the shift linkage.

I remember seeing these cars back in the day. Cool idea. But any car person knows that ANYthing that relies on vacuum power is going to fail, sooner or later...

Every car either has a clutch or a torque converter, but not both. VW: Hold my Stein

That's interesting about the low - 1- 2 gearing. My bus is an automatic & it's nice for cruising around town. All of the young kids today can't drive manuals and I'm constantly being asked how much I'd sell mine for only because it's an auto. Hills are pretty rough though. haha

What a great informative video! Having just acquired an auto stick ghia, this was particularly interesting to watch. I’ve not really driven in low and mostly just putt around in 1. Thanks for sharing Eddy

Hey Eddy ! I raced a 69 FB with my 67 FB . It had a auto and mine was std. = no race at all I sold the FB for 1,000 and used the money for a down pay. on a 750 Yamadog , big mistake . I sold the dog for 400 bucks running ?

cant you buy a decent set of rubber mats and pedals for that thing?

as long as it works ?