Being a middlun the same age as you bugnut and having a background in air cooleds I understand your concern. You don't see many young people driving the older bugs anymore. Also being on the other side of the fence and driving a watercooled dub for over a year now I have noticed that the watercooled crowd seems a bit...........for lack of a better word.....SNOBBISH. Rarely will one wave back at me when I wave first. Pretty sad isn't it???

Good Question,  You guys are 33. In 1973, you have to remember that the air-cool VWs were really starting to fade away across the board. I always considered the early to the late 60s as the glory years here in the U.S. The" waving " days were over I think in the early 60s because there were millions of Bugs and Bus's on the road here. Folks drove VWs to be different. How many people driving 1968 Impalas waved to each other ?
   Then came along the Japs with cars with A/C , heater, faster for just about the same money.
   What do you mean about the next generation ?  You guys are it. You and your friends one day will be the leaders carrying on the love or love/hate relationship with Air-cooled VW when us old guys are gone. The last time I checked, there were five old professional Air-cool techs left in this town and only one who is still working. There were at least 5-6 independent shops and 2 VW dealers and 2 "grey market" dealers at one time in Chattanooga.
   So what do you do ?  Let me put it this way. You "young'un are very lucky to have a damn good club in the S.C.V.F. that has a lot of "smarts" and" know-how" and Historys on the subject of air-cools. Learn all you can , Read. read, read. Folks may not wave as often on the road,but they do gather in a "Pile" at shows all over the country.
   As far as " Water Pumpers" go, Whos got time to wave. By the time you fiqure it out to a VW and not a Corolla or Camery, its zoomed on by.
At least you could tell if it was a Bug/Bus from a mile away
   Air-cool folks talk about 009s, 34 carb, header, floor pans.
   Water-Pumper folks talk about Chips and dips , Tomato cans and constantly spining wheel covers.
   What do you mean you don't see young guys driving Bugs. They are young guys. They just got finished restoring their Bug/Bus. and that would make anybody grey-headed and look and feel old :lol:

Sad as it sounds, there will come a day when there aren't any air-cooled VWs left on the road.  Because of the effect they had on the world automotive industry, I believe there will always be some old VWs around . . . but someday you'll have to visit a museum to view them.  When will that day come?  20 years from now? . . . 40 years from now? . . . 100 years from now?  It's hard to say how long, but it is inevitable.  Before the Beetle past it back in the mid-1970s, the Ford Model T was the most produced car in the world.  When was the last time you knew someone who had a Model T as a daily driver?

Didn't they build MILLIONS of them?  Can you still find Model Ts for sale?  Can you still get parts for them?  Are their still Model T enthusiast?  Yes, yes, yes, and yes.  Why don't people still drive them then?  If you can't answer that, you've never driven one.  They are antiques.  Even in showroom condition they drive like an antique.  And when something goes wrong, yeah, you can get the parts and fix it, but you are not working on a car, you are restoring an antique.  It'll get super expensive in a hurry.

The last model Ts were built in 1927.  That was just 33 years before I was born and I NEVER remember seeing one on the road.  The last air cooled Beetles were sold in the US in 1980 (there were a few hundred '79 convertibles built in early January 1980).  Anyway, the VW Beetle has been off the US market for 26 years and there are millions of them still on the road . . . many are still daily drivers.  By the Model T standards, the Beetle should be almost totally off the road and remaining examples being hoarded by collectors.  The fact that this hasn't happened and shows no sign of happening soon is a testiment to the design.  By making improvements constantly throughout it's production instead of redesigning the car from scratch ever couple of years, the Beetle has postponed its status as an antique for many, many years.  For now, it's still what it was designed to be . . . the People's Car.  Just think, if there are still Beetles on the road in 32 more years, they will be driving around 100 years after the design was released!  The cold hard truth is that someday there won't be any left on the road, but I doubt there will EVER be another vehicle that comes close to staying on the road for 100 years.  

I have permanent bruises from playing punch buggy with my brother  on our family vacations.  Who ever saw the VW first would slug the person who did not see it.  We often had to call the game a draw due to the pain.
Now you can play the game all week and never get hit.  If air cooled motercycles still sell.  I don't under stand why a air cooled car can't compete.  Especially with all the technology thats available

I'm the third 33-year old to reply in this topic (numerologists, unite)
My two cents is that there will be a significant decline in the next generation. As we age and our disposible income increases (we hope) we want the things we couldn't have as kids. For example, the baby boomers that were stuck driving Mom's four-door Dodge Dart with the slant six are now the millionaires who go to the B-J auction and spend six figures on the Hemi Cuda they dreamed about when they were young. We thirty-somethings are the last generation to grow up seeing ACVWs on the road and in showrooms. To the typical member of next generation, there is no emotional connection. This isn't to say there aren't teens and twenty-somethings that like VWs. In their case there may be another connection, such as having parents who are into VWs or the neo-neo-hippies who are looking for busses.
As to the Model Ts and As, I think their quick demise had to do with the steepnes of the development curve of the auto in the first half of the century. When the new models came out with the new features, they were a significant advance (electric starter, anyone? Automatic spark advance?Roll-up windows?) As automotive technology has advanced, the curve has flattened to the point where a new dash light color is the big news. When the Model A came out, it rendered the Model T completely obsolete. It was that much more advanced. Now, you can drive a mark IV Golf or a mark I Rabbit and still have basically the same car.
To the next generation, I'm afraid the Beetles, Busses, et. al. are starting to be looked at the way previous generations look at the Model T. Quaint, interesting antiques, but not the ride to get the girl. Does this mean that in the 2030 B-J auction today's kid who has to drive his Mom's Taurus will be bidding six figures for that '95 Accord with the wing and body kit? I shudder to think...

I'm amazed at the amount of 33 year old folks that are VolksFolks club members and from what they have to  say about VW down the road. The old VWs will be around for a long time I think. I'll see you guys at BP-38 .

As for the 20's age group, I have to say that nobody in my family ever had a VW.  But for some odd reason I latched onto them while I was in college and was finally able to obtain a couple once I started making money.  And I'm so glad I did!