In Greece we call it the Skaraveos, in Germany the Käfer, in America the Beetle or Bug, in Italy the Maggiolino. Few cars have so many affectionate names, because few cars have been loved so much. The Volkswagen Type 1 was built for 65 years, in more than 21 million units, and travelled from the darkest period of European history to the flower-power generation.
Photo: Alf van Beem / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
A difficult start
The Beetle was designed in the 1930s by Ferdinand Porsche as a “people’s car”, a Volks-Wagen. The regime of the time used it for propaganda under the name KdF-Wagen. Thousands of Germans paid instalments to get one, but almost nobody received a car. When war broke out, the factory built military vehicles.
In 1945 the Wolfsburg factory was half destroyed and lay in the British occupation zone. A young British officer, Major Ivan Hirst, saw that the car had value. He persuaded the British army to order 20,000 cars for its own needs, and so production restarted. Without him, the Beetle might not have survived.
Nordhoff and exports
In 1948 Heinrich Nordhoff took over management. He constantly improved quality and started exports. The philosophy was simple: the Beetle would not change shape, it would just get better every year. The air-cooled rear-mounted flat-four was simple, did not freeze in winter, did not boil in summer and almost anyone could fix it.
Fans tell the eras apart by the rear window. Until 1953 it was split in two, the famous “Brezel”, the pretzel. Then it became a single oval, and from 1957 it grew larger still.
Photo: dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
“Think Small” and Herbie
In America, where cars were huge, the Beetle looked funny. In 1959 the DDB advertising agency created a campaign titled “Think Small”, with a tiny photo of the car on an empty page. It is still considered one of the best adverts of all time. The Beetle became the car of students, artists and hippies.
In 1968 Disney made it a star with the film “The Love Bug”, in which a white Beetle numbered 53, Herbie, has a mind of its own.
Photo: Sicnag / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
The record and the end
On 17 February 1972, the Beetle overtook the Ford Model T to become the most-produced car in history, with more than 15 million built. Production of the saloon in Germany ended in 1978, but continued in Brazil and Mexico. The last Beetle left the Puebla factory in Mexico on 30 July 2003. It was car number 21,529,464.
Today the Beetle is one of the friendliest classics to start with. Simple, cheap to maintain, with parts everywhere. Check the floor and the sills for rust, and then enjoy the most distinctive sound on the road.
P.Kefalas