My beetle came with one of those Scat drag style shifters. Which honestly just didn’t jive with me. I replaced it with a $20 shifter from J-Bugs. It worked but it didn’t… excite me? Like it had this cheap little shift knob and was what a $20 shifter would be. I saw a reference to the Bug-Tech line of shifters in Hot VW magazine and well I order one. 4 weeks later the Daily Driver was in my beetle.
I purchased the Daily Driver model with the bent shaft since the straight shaft would be too far forward, I think that changed in the 67 model year? I also got the boot, 8 ball shifter knob and extension. In the end I did not use the extension, but I have it now just in case.
The shifter boasts 40% less throw for quicker shifts. I think that is right. It feels great to use, and the solid action is so much nicer than the $20 one. One would expect that since this is roughly 20x more expensive. You get into reverse by pushing the lever left and pushing against the spring plate.
When installing you remove your old shifer, the old reverse lockout plate and the bolts. The Bug-Tech comes with new bolts that us a 6mm bolt to secure. I found using a Chapman MFG ratchet and 6mm ball made this much quicker.
Now my 8 ball was crooked and emailing Bug-Tech got me no response. But I was able to jam a little piece of rubber glove in and it lined up straight. The lack of response to my email and the crooked 8 ball was a bit surprising for such an expensive piece of equipment. But I know VW people do this as a labor of love so I will cut them some slack.
In the end this is totally worht the money and I am stoked I got it. It totally fits the modern touches of my 66 baja bug.
Check it out here: https://www.bug-tech.de/collections/shifters/products/bugtech-daily-driver