Final Goodbye: Volkswagen Beetle
In July 2019, Volkswagen officially said goodbye to its iconic Beetle after more than 80 years of non-stop production. A proper four-seater with two-doors, the rear-engine economy car was manufactured and marketed by German automaker from 1938 until 2003. ETAuto traces the journey of the ‘people’s car’.
In the 1930s when Germany had just completed its new road network, its then Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, envisioned Volkswagen Beetle as an inexpensive, affordable people’s car that could be mass-produced and that had easily interchangeable parts.
The Beetle, which was sold for nearly seven decades was first rolled out. It was developed by Ferdinand Porche, an Austrian engineer. While some cars were built for military officers, the civilian production was immediately stopped due to World War II.
By this time, more than a thousand Beetles were produced at the factory.
By the end of 1946, more than 10,000 cars were manufactured. Civilian Beetles began being produced that had chrome bumpers, hubcaps, and body trim. The car still only had a 1131 cc engine and only 25 horsepower.
By this year, one millionth Beetle had already rolled off the assembly line.
The legendary ‘Think Small’ ad was created with a tiny Beetle in a plane of white space. The ad touted, “Maybe we got so big because we thought small.”
Globally, Disney marketed Beetle with the film ‘Herbie The Love Bug’, the first of six movies that feature a 1963 Beetle with anthropomorphic characteristics. The film helped cement the car's popular image as lovable automobile and the Bug became a symbol of the ‘small is beautiful’ ethos.
On February 17, the 15,007,034th Beetle was produced and it subsequently surpassed the Ford Model T to become the world’s best selling car. Further, by 1973, 16 million Beetles had been produced.
Volkswagen moved its Beetle production from Brazil to Mexico.
Beetle received its first proper iteration upgrade after 60 years. The new Beetle saw VW ditch the original rear-engine design and shift to a front-mounted 115PS 2.0-litre engine. Built on the contemporary Golf platform with styling recalling the original Type 1, it remained in production through 2010, and was succeeded in 2011 by the Beetle (A5), the last variant of the Beetle.
In June, owing to stiffer competition from newer cars, Volkswagen decided to end the production of the tiny bug.
This year saw the next iteration of the Beetle, codenamed the A5, which sold till July 2019 with the Final Edition.
Volkswagen announced that the Beetle had reached the end of the line due to declining sales since 2013.
German auto giant Volkswagen has stopped production of the iconic car, by launching the Final Edition of Beetle in denim blue colour at a Mexican factory in Puebla. The last Beetle rolled off the assembly line in July.
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