The End of the VW Beetle
[Headline from DRJ]
AP News — From Nazis to hippies: End of the road for Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen is halting production of the last version of its Beetle model this week at its plant in Puebla, Mexico. It’s the end of the road for a vehicle that has symbolized many things over a history spanning the eight decades since 1938.
It has been: a part of Germany’s darkest hours as a never-realized Nazi prestige project. A symbol of Germany’s postwar economic renaissance and rising middle-class prosperity. An example of globalization, sold and recognized all over the world. An emblem of the 1960s counterculture in the United States. Above all, the car remains a landmark in design, as recognizable as the Coca-Cola bottle.
— DRJ
The end of an incredibly, over-extended era. One of the easiest cars to work as a shade tree mechanic ever.
My family had a ‘69 with the autostick, it was the car my sister and I used until we bought our first cars. I’d have rather had a manual, but… one thing I remember about the car was that there was some sort of valve – easily removed – that would get plugged up with minute matter and cause the car to stall at slow speeds. i’d have to remove it and use the compressed air at a gas station to blow it clean, screw it back in and the car would run fine for a few days and then I’d have to repeat the process. The dealer could never fix it, so it was something we’d just deal with.
A pleasant memory I have was making a small tweak like my school chums with VWs (theirs were all lowered in the front with Select-a-Drop suspensions, deep dish chromed wheels with Porsche hub caps, bigger carbs and exhaust headers) had done… which was to simply inflate the spare tire in the front trunk to about 80 lbs and reverse the windshield washer nozzles (which ran off the air in the spare tire) so that we could zap unsuspecting pedestrians in crosswalks at each intersection. The challenge was to hold a straight face when the victims looked up in the sky and all around trying to determine the source of the liquid. Life was easy and grins were cheap.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/9/2019 @ 7:09 amWe had two beetles in my family. My dad’s 65 which he used as a commuter and my sister’s 71 (w Shaky Jake pinstripe).
My first car was a used 69 VW bus with the Sundial camper conversion that went on a thousand surf trips and went to Wash DC for the Bicentennial and oh btw also had the washers turned high and right to spray people on the sidewalk.
To understand just how ubiquitous the Beetle was in those days, here is something a friend told me and which I proved many times: you could look 360 degrees on any street in SoCal and more often than not you would see at least one Beetle and quite often several. This seems incredible but it was true.
harkin (58d012) — 7/9/2019 @ 7:33 amRoss Perot dead at 89.
Dave (1bb933) — 7/9/2019 @ 7:35 amGood riddance. I had an old timey Bug that threw a rod and a newer Bug I got for my daughter that developed an electrical issue that cost over a grand. Everything was expensive with that POS, including the $250 key fob.
Paul Montagu (fc91e5) — 7/9/2019 @ 7:40 amI’ve driven American my entire life, except for the six years I lived in France.
I don’t think I’ve ever driven a German car even once in my life…
Dave (1bb933) — 7/9/2019 @ 7:46 am4 – can’t speak for the newer version other than a friend had the diesel and he loved it.
On the classic, we ran ours into the ground with never a problem, which accounts for how successful they were.
My main technical beef was why they never figured out how to make a heater that didn’t smell like burnt maple syrup.
harkin (58d012) — 7/9/2019 @ 8:05 am“Think small.”
Best damn ad headline ever.
Nazis know you can’t kill an idea.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/9/2019 @ 8:27 am2… back in the day, a Summer road trip in Cali wasn’t complete without seeing a VW bus on the side of the road, engine on fire.
The 360 test was true in SoCal… harkin, you’ve probably mentioned your high school before, but where/what was it?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/9/2019 @ 8:32 amNever had an engine fire on the bus, which was driven harder than any VW bus in the history of mankind.
The fire comment however reminded me of a Beetle I forgot about, we had a Baja Bug that had an engine fire after some serious off-roading in the desert near the Colorado River (fuel line got shook loose).
As to ad headlines, here are two much better examples:
https://designarchives.aiga.org/assets/images/000/020/070/20070_lg.jpg
https://tommcmahon.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834515db069e20115714e8332970b-800wi
harkin (58d012) — 7/9/2019 @ 9:30 amI don’t remember the ad referencing Kennedy, but I do remember other ads touting its ability to float.
And of course, there was Herbie.
Kishnevi (4777d8) — 7/9/2019 @ 9:38 amThe Kennedy ad was a spoof by National Lampoon.
IIRC Volkswagen sued and the Kennedys chose to remain mute.
harkin (58d012) — 7/9/2019 @ 9:58 am@10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Small
Had one framed up in my NY office; still keep it in the home office. It’s considered the ad, created by DDB, that sparked the Madison Avenue creative revolution of the 1960’s.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/9/2019 @ 10:59 am@9. No.
They came after and were part of the campaign series. It all began wit ‘Think Small.’
DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/9/2019 @ 11:03 amLol – never knew the Kennedy ad was part of VW’s ad campaign.
0_o
Think small indeed.;
harkin (b7bcc1) — 7/9/2019 @ 12:15 pm