Christine Peck’s love of Volkswagens blossomed early in her life and never left.
When she was a freshman in high school, she cruised to swim meets in a 1972 blue VW bus owned by her teammate’s parents. That same friend scored a VW Beetle once she was able to drive. Christine wanted one too, “but my dad thought they were unsafe because their engines were in the back,” she says. “I decided I would get one when I was older.”
She followed through, buying a standard yellow Beetle in 1998 and selling it five years later when Volkswagen released the New Beetle Convertible. After Christine’s first husband, James “Kevin” Grider, died in 2009, she joined River City Clowns, began playing a character called “Daisy,” and decorated the newer tan convertible for clown events.
Selling the convertible in 2012 and marrying Michael Peck in 2016, Christine yearned for her own vintage VW bus.
“I looked for probably five years off and on,” Christine says. She hit the jackpot at USAcustombus.com, discovering a yellow, 1973 Samba manufactured in Brazil. She and Michael traveled to Pompano Beach, Florida, in September 2023, made the buy —asked what she paid, Christine answers, “Enough,” — and had it shipped via trailer to their Mount Vernon, Indiana, home.
The 23-window bus isn’t the easiest vehicle to drive: It has manual transmission and lacks air conditioning and power steering. The white leather interior seats eight in a L-shaped layout, and there’s a TV. Christine adds retro accoutrements such as a ‘70s-themed quilt and a yellow shag rug. She held a Facebook contest to name the bus and chose “Sunbeam.”
Christine doesn’t take Sunbeam long distances — “you drive it on a beautiful day around town,” she says. “It fulfilled a childhood dream of mine to get it, and it always makes people smile. We get lots of waves and thumbs-up.”
“I have caught people sitting in it,” she says, adding that she does not mind when they do, and she’s happy to chat up curious onlookers. “So many people either had one, or their parents owned one and they have memories. Younger generations get a kick out of the vintage vehicle,” too, including, Christine says, her five grandchildren.
She explains that the biggest challenge was finding a repair location, but she shouts out Full Throttle Automotive in Evansville for its good work. “They do all vehicles, but they do take a lot of classic cars,” she says.
Christine’s fourth Volkswagen is different from the Samba, to say the least. Her 2025 ID.Buzz is fully electric, “with lots of bells and whistles and safety features,” she says. Although yellow is her favorite color, the 2025 model (named “Moonbeam” in a Facebook contest) has more of a green hue. As for what’s next, “I’m thinking about getting another 1973 beetle convertible,” she says. “But I want it to be yellow.”
Christine is “semi-retired” as the owner of The Image Inks Co., while Michael is retired from CountryMark. Christine says her husband would be the first to say the Volkswagen automobiles are all hers and that she controls the couple’s garage. Michael “drives a truck, and he parks in the street,” Christine says.
