KARIN WILSON

caused her driving examiner to gasp when she turned up for her L-Test in a Volkswagen campervan.

Fifty years on and with 16 VWs to her name, she’s staying loyal to the German marque.

Now 70, she bought her first her creamcoloured Beetle from North Riding Motors in 1967 and is pictured here with it holding her first daughter Suzanne, alongside her late husband Michael’s parents, Gladys and Frank Wilson. She said: ‘I loved the Beetle right from the beginning. It was new and cost £585.’

Since then she’s had a campervan, a second Beetle, three Golfs and 10 Polos.

At a thank you reception organised by her dealership, she said of taking the driving test: ‘The examiner took a gasp of breath when he saw it. He took me to the widest road he could find.’