This 1972 VW ‘Boonie Bug’ is one of the weirdest ever Facebook Marketplace finds
- Check out this cool 1972 Boonie Bug
- The kit car was built around a Volkswagen van
- This one has come up for sale on Facebook Marketplace
Published on Jan 23, 2025 at 7:34 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Jan 23, 2025 at 9:46 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
This super cool and totally bizarre 1972 Volkswagen Boonie Bug has been placed for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
The Boonie Bug was a kit car that appeared in Popular Mechanics magazine back in the 1970s.
The car was built around a Volkswagen van chassis and was designed to be used off-road.
This one up for sale in Michigan needs to be finished off, but could make a very interesting project in the right hands.
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The Boonie Bug was a kit car from the 1970s
Facebook Marketplace is packed with unique and unusual vehicles for sale, such as this Lightning McQueen-wrapped Mazda 6, or this street-legal Chevy Camaro golf cart.
And over in Coloma, Michigan, this 1972 VW kit car Boonie Bug is looking for a new owner.
The unusual vehicle got its name from where it was designed to be driven – the boondocks – and the fact it was built around a VW, famous for its ‘Bug’, although the kit is actually built onto a VW bus chassis.
The magazine sang the praises of the Boonie Bug saying it offered ‘the go-anywhereness of an ATV, the sleeping and camping facilities of an enclosed van and the smooth-riding qualities of a conventional station wagon at highway speeds – rolled into one slick-looking, smartly styled vehicle equally at home on or off the road’.
Who wouldn’t want one of those?
This one is in need of a bit of TLC
The Boonie Bug was designed by Robert Q. Riley and its build plans were sold by Popular Mechanics for just $14 a pop. An absolute bargain.
The seller of this half-finished example said he would throw in the original magazine with the sale, provided he could find it.
Sadly, the listing also states that this particular Boonie Bug is not running and, of course, it still needs to be finished.
However, the vehicle comes with a VW 1600cc Longblock engine as well as various other Volkswagen parts.
The seller also notes that the poor old Boonie Bug has been parked in a barn and then a garage for the last seven or eight years and it does look as though the years have not been kind to the kit car.
But if you’re interested, the owner of the Boonie Bug is hoping for $3,000 and is open to sensible offers.
Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Across her career she's covered a wide variety of topics, including celebrity, cryptocurrency, politics, true crime and just about everything in between.
