Thought about this list for a long time. So many nice and useful aircooled vw's, difficult choice.
Extremely difficult to decide on the order of the list, most of these cars can be at the top.
My list is more about having them IN the top 10 list than the order.
With usefullness as a daily driver also important, (Some of us do'nt drive waterleakers as daily drivers):
1) Late highlight (73-79) baywindow with type 4 engine.
2) Beetle 67- 1500 with balljoint front suspension and factory disc brakes.
3) 412LE Variant with manual transmission.
4) Kombi "11 window" or panel van, 65-67.
5) Late beetle 1300 dual port (not converted to 1600).
6) Any type 3.
7) Type 182.
S-beetle with curved windscreen. (Cannot get the smiley away in edit, what am i doing wrong?) Maybe the letter "S" is wrongly recognised as a smiley?
9) Autovilla.
10) Karmann Ghia.
Baywindow because of it's sturdy suspension and strong type 4 engine with large cooling fin surface area, strong engine casing and standard oil filter,
Beetle 1300 for it's efficient engine,
412 for it's large loading space and comfortable long distance cruising ability. Only problem is the comments from those who prefer looks, not function. Many who have never driven one. By the way, combined 411 and 412 production worldwide was only 367000. Today they are getting scarce. By the way, more Karmann Ghias than 411/ 412's were made, and over a million oval beetles were produced. About a million Brasilias were made in South America, and over 2.5 million type 3's were produced.
Actually any acvw that was kept inside a garage (and not left outside in the rain where water gets under the rubbers, inside the doors, heater channels, etc, causing rust), makes a good candidate for the list.
No need to drive around daily in some boring expensive Toytata, Frod, Madza, Blik-Met-Wiele or Ssang-
Yyongg.
Sad that when a car was made too well and reliable, and live too long, people look down on it. Some say that the "shape" or appearance is out of fashion. The late beetle, late baywindow, and Mercedes W123 series fall in that class.
Once VW mentioned that about a quarter of a million beetles were made in SA. Then Ford said that they sold more Cortinas locally. At the show at Noordelikes Stadium last year there were at least 30 Cortinas displayed, and only a handfull of beetles. In the meantime beetles, some much older than Cortinas, were still working hard as student's transport.
Still some nice aircooled cars out there!
, buts thats all i could think of