Eve Miller
27 February, 2025
News

Pink to make you wink: The Hastings woman with a truly eye-catching vintage car

For many of us, certain cars can easily catch our eyes while we’re out and about, but for one woman, her car was truly made to turn heads.

Odette and her Beetle

Odette Tokely had wanted a pink car for most of her adult life when, back in the 80s, she decided to make it happen. 

The Hastings-based learning disability nurse had asked her husband at the time if they could paint her Mk2 Ford Escort, but he refused, saying it would devalue it.

While working at a children’s home in 1989, she would then find a car that she could finally give a pink makeover - a VW Beetle.

The Beetle's original state
The Beetle's original state Credit: Dubtales/Adrian Flux

“The doors were hanging off, and the battery was on the floor,” she remembers. “It was owned by a 16-year-old at the home, one of six siblings who were there,” she told Dubtales. 

“He had bought it to do up, but he obviously hadn’t been able to do it. So I said to my other half, ‘What about that? Can that be pink?’ And that’s how it started.”

She would buy it for £150 and her ex-partner, a mechanic, would restore the car so it could drive again. 

The original pink coat
The original pink coat Credit: Dubtales/Adrian Flux

“It was first restored in a light pink with glitter in a lacquer, so it was sparkly. I didn’t buy it because it was a Beetle – I just bought it so it could be pink,” she joked.

In 1990, Mrs Tokely would take the eye-catching Beetle on one of its first outings to Bug Jam, with her best friend in the passenger seat. 

“It became law that we went to Bug Jam because that was the first thing we ever did,” she revealed. 

The Beetle painted as Mr Blobby for charity
The Beetle painted as Mr Blobby for charity Credit: Dubtales/Adrian Flux

“We’ve been there most years since.”

A now true VW fan, after she moved to Shoreham, she spent some of the 90s setting up a local branch of the Sussex Owners Club.

“We used to do lots of fundraising things, like car treasure hunts, and we decorated the car like Mr Blobby with yellow plastic vinyl spots,” she recalled. 

The interior
The interior Credit: Dubtales/Adrian Flux

When reflecting on the community she’s part of, she said; “It’s the whole atmosphere.”

“It doesn’t matter who you are or how old you are, everybody gets on, and everybody helps each other out. With mine, if it broke down, somebody would always help me out.”

“After my marriage broke down, I did get a camper with my daughter. We used to go to Belgium and France as a club, and one time she couldn’t come.”

“I wasn’t keen on going without her, but the club members said ‘come on’. We got to Dover and as we were going on the ferry, the clutch cable snapped, and I was ‘right, this isn’t meant to be, I’m not going’.”

“They said ‘Yes, you are’, and they towed me onto the ferry, got to the other side and fixed it in a lorry car park. I suppose that’s just the fun of it all.”

Over three decades later, she’s still taking it on trips but, in 2019, it was briefly off the road so she could restore it again. Now has had a hot pink makeover to match Mrs Tokely’s hair. 

“It’s hard to explain what the car means to me,” she said.

“I think it’s quite nice that I’ve managed to keep it this long, kept it on the road and kept it in the condition it is.”

“Everyone waves at you,” she added. 

“When we’re going down the motorway or dual carriageway people will slow down and drive beside us. And it’s like woah, they didn’t do it when it was the previous colour. And when we’ve got the teardrop behind it, everyone’s ‘Wahaay’.”

Looking to the future, she also said; “I’ll keep it going.” 

“If I couldn’t do the shows I wouldn’t be very happy – it means a lot to me.”

“My 10-year-old grandson says to me ‘I’m having it next, aren’t I?’ I say ‘But you’re going to hot rod it aren’t you?’.”

“‘No, no, no, I’ll leave it like that’. So it’s in my will to him, because he’s promised he’ll look after it.”