[elhigh]

Waste oil, there's a thought. You could spend some time on the alternative fuels forums to see who has experience - and how it worked out - running an old VW on waste oil. I know of lots of folks who've had good experience running their Ford diesels and a bunch running Mercedes diesels on waste veggie oil, evidently they do really well on it. But I don't know about the VWs.

I'd recommend pulling the front bumper back out. It's deep inside the stagnation zone and I don't think pushing it in is going to make a noticeable difference. I've bumped into enough stuff - or been bumped into - to want the margin of collapse provided by those bumpers; I think they're worth their weight and collapse length in gold. Bump a new car and the bumper cover is hundreds of dollars to replace.

With that bolt-upright windshield, I tend to think pulling a wiper is marginal, too, for the same reason. I don't have experience with that, I get too much rain to try it.