Buying and Selling Vehicles - VW Beetle 1968. What to look for?

Looking for a car for 16 year old daughter. Ran across a 1968 Beetle. She of course loves it. Any advice on what to look for when I check out this car? $2500 seems about right if it truly "runs great" as advertised. Appreciate any and all insight. Thanks

I hate to be a party pooper, but a '68 Beetle (or any year old-style Beetle) would be the last car I would put my teenage driver in. Nice nostalgia and easy on the wallet, but from a safety standpoint it's about a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10; keeping mind any accident would likely involve (given the mix of vehicles on the road today) a collision with an SUV, pickup truck, or van; some of which would outweigh the poor Beetle by a couple of tons.

FWIW, our 19 year old college student drives a '96 Escort; not exactly a Hummer, but certainly more substantial than a Beetle and has airbags.

Here's some other opinions:

http://ask.metafilter.com/49369/Advice-for-buying-an-old-VW

Keep the tow guy safety in mind.............
I had a ball with my Beetle ( one of 6 cars we had in the family ) If the car does not have a blower on the heater or a gas heater--you will freeze in the winter. A very easy car to work on & repair. One drawback--if the fly wheel nut comes loose it takes 2500 # pressure to tighten.
I got pretty good at pulling the engine-clocked at 5 minutes by myself.
Think about the safety factor--take care..................

Safety is important especially for a 16 year old. Think I'll look elsewhere. Bug is very tempting. Pretty inexpensive and will get all that $$ back someday and yet still "cool" for the kid. Easy to work on too. With 4 more kids coming too close behind sure wanted this to work, but as tempting as it is I guess I'll keep looking. Thanks. Just the kind of input I was looking for whether it's what I wanted or not.

Safety is important especially for a 16 year old. Think I'll look elsewhere. Bug is very tempting. Pretty inexpensive and will get all that $$ back someday and yet still "cool" for the kid. Easy to work on too. With 4 more kids coming too close behind sure wanted this to work, but as tempting as it is I guess I'll keep looking. Thanks. Just the kind of input I was looking for whether it's what I wanted or not.

from what i see and hear, a HONDA is the best bet for a teen because of mileage, dependability, safety and longevity. they just last a long time. next in line(for my money) is a toyota then nissan. i'm an american car guy, but experience has proven them excellent cars. all good for 200,000 to 300,00 miles with good maintenance.

I bought a 68 super B for the boy. We hacked it up and made a pretty decent Baja bug out of it.
Of course that was 25 years ago.

Look at the parking lot at your local high school. Along with the usual beaters, you will see the cars that mikeTN suggested. Good choices.