ZOINKS! Dayton has a new Mystery Machine

Zoinks!

Dayton.com Music Insider contributing writer Libby Ballengee and her best friend Dan Lea recently purchased a 1978 Volkswagen Westfalia bus from a Springfield couple.

>> 3 things to know about Dayton’s historic, ‘handsome’ Union Station

It just so happens that a Springfield church youth group painted it years ago to look like the van Scooby, Shaggy and the rest of the crew traveled around in on “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”

Ballengee and Lea are both Volkswagen fans and plan to use it to camp with their dogs.

It can do 60 mph tops.

"It is in as good of shape as it could possibly be for a 40-year-old vehicle," Ballengee said of her new purchase.  "We are going to sort of do regional trips. We are definitely not going to drive it around the country."

As Ballengee’s fiancé pointed out, the bus being painted like The Mystery Machine is a conversational piece, to say the least.

>> See these editorial cartoons 

“We are a little in the air about permanently keeping it as The Mystery Machine,” she said. “It depends on how often we are stopped. For now, I am thrilled to have all my little nephews check it out.”

Ballengee said there is a at least one other Mystery Machine in town, but she thinks it is a van rather than a VW bus.

Purchasing the van that was painted by a Springfield church youth group seemed like the right thing to do, she said

>> PHOTOS: Longaberger basket company to close

She and Lea had looked high and low for an economical VW before buying theirs for about $4,500.

This VW was special.

Like Ballengee, it turns 40 in 2018.

She said her family had a VW bus and several VW rabbits when she was a child.

She is still a little bummed that her mother, Martha Ballengee, auctioned off her dad’s VW after he died in 1991.

"It was like a knife through the heart," Ballengee said of seeing Bob Ballengee's VW go. "I always wanted to get the bus back."