When looking for a car under $1000 bucks a lot of classics that are great to build, restore, and drive are always available.

One of the more common great classic cars that you can buy cheap and drive is still the Volkswagen Beetle. The VW bug has always been a symbol of cheap and reliable transportation and even though many are becoming more valuable, you can still find plenty at for under $1000 dollars.  Its becoming tougher to find a clean example that can be driven for under $1000 dollars but you can always find a start to a great project car.

What I like best about these VW's (other than the fact it was my first car a '72) is that you can do so many different things with them from perfect resto's, custom resto's,custom drag cars,road racers, off road toys, kit cars, and the list goes on.  Depending on what you have in mind for yours this can affect how you may want to make your purchase.

Most cars of this age and VW's are no different have a fair amount of rust thats needs to be checked for and addressed.  Floor pans and heater channels tend to be problem areas especially where the battery is located.  Floor pans are not a tough fix but heater channels if they get bad may require bracing of the car and a lot of labor.  So if your planning on doing a baja bug for example rust on the fenders etc. may not be of concern but structural areas will affect it's ability to take abuse on the trails. 

Quick stats in-case you did not know are the car comes with one of two motor types dual port and single port, two rear suspension types  swing axles and IRS,and two trim models standard and super.  Super Beetles have Macphearson struts in the front and a shorter stubbier front nose.  Its seems the super's have less overall value as collectables so they tend to be cheaper.  The mix of parts you get will simply depend on the year; VW always made changes but maintained the overall same design. 

The reason these cars are All-Stars is that not only are they very simple to and easy to work on (pull the engine in 30 minutes), but they are reliable can usually handle all types of weather and parts are fairly cheap still.  These classic's can let you have the classic car experience with a more modern reliability standard.  So if you can find one for cheap buy it and have fun!