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December 2015. Readership 209,Media, a division of Bauer Media LTD ACN: Unique Cars is published by Bauer Trader
18 053 273 546. All material in Unique Cars is protected by the Commonwealth
Copyright Act, 1968. No material may be reproduced without written consent.
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Printed by APN Print, Qld.ISSN 1449-JULY 10 2019 will go down in
automotive history as the day
production of the Volkswagen
Beetle ended.
Selling over 23 million
units since 1938 and instantly
recognisable, the Volkswagen
became a sign of Germany’s
post-war economic recovery
and growing middle-class
prosperity.
An early example of product
globalisation the Volkswagen
was sold and produced around
the world including Australia
with the Beetle initially
assembled then manufactured
at Clayton in Victoria between
the mid-1950s and 1976, when
Datsun took over the plant –
until recently it also housed
Holden Special Vehicles.
Conceived by Adolf Hitler
the people’s car was meant
to bring vehicle ownership to
the German people the way
the Ford T-Model had done
for the Americans. Hitler
hired Ferdinand Porsche who
created the rounded beetle
shape car with flat near-vertical
windscreen, two small rear
windows and a rear mountedair-cooled engine.
The project was shelved with
the outbreak of war and in a
strange twist was resurrected
under supervision of the British
occupation authorities, who
transferred the factory back to
German ownership n 1949.
By 1955, the millionth Beetle- officially called the Type 1 –
had rolled off the assembly line
in Volkswagen's home town,
Wolfsburg.
The USA became
Volkswagen’s biggest export
market selling 563,522 cars in
1968, or 40 per cent of overall
production. This was no doubt
boosted by the humorous and
unconventional advertising
surrounding the Beetle.
Hollywood got in on the act
and over the years the Beetle
has appeared in dozens of films,
the biggest at the box office
being Herbie. Following that
movie just about every car yard
and street corner sprouted a
white Volkswagen beetle with a
red and blue stripe and number
53 on its bodywork.
In the early 60s Californian
boat builder Bruce Meyers
shortened the Volkswagen
chassis and replaced the
steel body with an open top
fibreglass two-seater. It was
called the Meyers Manx and
was the original dune buggy.
They were very fashionable in
London in the early 70s.
Production of the Type 1
Beetle ended at Wolfsburg
in 1974 to make way for new
front-engine and front-drive
models like the Golf. But it
wasn’t over for the Beetle with
manufacturing switching to
other factories including in
Mexico, where the last Type 1
was built in 2003.
Meanwhile in 1998 a new
retro-Beetle had emerged,
based on a Golf platform and
with the drive and engine in the
opposite end to the original, but
with several styling cues to the
old car. In 2012, the design was
given its last makeover and now
its amazing journey has come
to an end.
The last of 5961 Final Edition
Beetles is headed for a museum
after ceremonies at the Puebla,
Mexico, plant on July 10 to mark
the end of an icon.END OF THE ROAD FOR
VOLKSWAGEN'S BEETLE