Behind the story: One writer’s eventual embrace of the red-hot VW Bus

When my future wife told me about a decade ago that I should buy a VW Bus, I laughed.

I had grown up enamored of classic cars: “boats” (long, sleek models like the Impalas and Cadillacs of the 1960s) and “bombs” (gigantic big band-era Chevy Fleetlines and Lincoln Continentals) and late-’70s Ford…