The VW Beetle is an enduring icon of automotive history and will be until the end of time. With more than 21-million of the suckers produced, the car had a run like few others in history have had. Born in the dark days preceding WWII and later emerging as an integral piece of pop culture in the 1960s and 1970s, the VW Beetle led an automotive life of extremes. A vehicle commissioned by Hitler would later become a near universal sign of the peacenik/hippy culture which we’re pretty sure would have really annoyed Adolph, making it all the more fun to think about. The car was designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche who took its basic bones and later used them to develop sports cars and competition vehicles in the company that bore his own name and continues to thrive today.
It was 1960 when the Beetle really found its audience here in the USA becoming the top selling import that year. An innovative advertising campaign popped up and sustained through the better part of the decade with slogans like “THINK SMALL” and one famous ad that read, “0-60? Yes.” The company stressed the practical nature of the car, even pushing it as the smart second vehicle for families or commuters who needed a city car to get into their office job each day. Then there were the movies like Herbie and then the kits started showing up and then the dune buggy explosion happened, and then hot rodders got really into hopping up the little air cooled engines and all of that stuff endures even today. Huge meets at drag strips and other facilities take place all over the world many times per year. Bug-Ins bring together the hard core Beetle lovers who can appreciate totally restored, cosmetically modified, and hot rodded Beetles. They have their own culture and it continues to thrive.
By 1977 things were changing. The USA had banned their sale in the late 1970s as they stopped meeting the ever more stringent crash tests required by the government and sales weren’t exactly what they were in the golden era of the car. Simply put, the thing was not refined enough for the buyers of the day. Mexico still had use for the cars though and they were used extensively as taxis and by 1988 the only place in the world you buy an old school Beetle was Mexico. The final nail in the coffin of the Beetle was when the Mexican government decided to disallow the use of two door taxi-cabs. Once this happened, the business case for the classic Beetle, even in the Mexican market went kaput and production stopped on July 30th, 2003 with the final production tally being 21,529,464. Pretty incredible, huh?
21 million. If that boxer fad tally finished with a ten geared 1.8L liquid cooled subaru, I’d be in heaven.
Total production was something like 21.5 million cars over its lifetime.
One of the things that always peeves me is that places ask the question of ‘what car was produced in the greatest numbers?’ which is of course the Beetle.
Instead they want to hear “Corolla” a name plate that has appeared on many different car designs for a larger volume that he Beetle.
Don’t feel bad . I had some wingnut once when I posted that the VW Micro Bus had the longest production run of any model in automotive history when its time was finally up this year try to tell me that the Chevy Suburban was around longer . Which … in name/moniker only might be true … but as far as the actual vehicle is concerned … nothing being further from the truth
Ahh … the VW Beetle and all the variations including the beloved Beetle Bus it spawned .
Betcha dollars to donuts if you included each and every variant of the Beetle .. including the 411 .. Karman Ghia .. Beetle Bus [ and p/u ] etc it would still out number all the Corolla variations ever made . Could be wrong on that . But I’m guessing I’m not 😉
“production stopped on July 30th, 2011”
How is this 11 years ago?
Fixed!