{"id":75944,"date":"2026-07-15T07:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/?p=75944"},"modified":"2026-07-15T07:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:19:13","slug":"volkswagen-beetles-global-journey-from-rejected-prototype-to-cultural-icon-and-collectors-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/volkswagen-beetles-global-journey-from-rejected-prototype-to-cultural-icon-and-collectors-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen Beetle\u2019s Global Journey from Rejected Prototype to Cultural Icon and Collector\u2019s Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Did the Volkswagen Beetle Become a Global Icon Despite Its Contested Origins?<\/p>\n

The Volkswagen Beetle\u2019s trajectory from a utilitarian project in prewar Germany to a global automotive icon is less a linear ascent than a sequence of improbable survivals and reinventions. Its genesis under Ferdinand Porsche, with direct support from the Nazi regime, has long complicated its legacy. While some histories emphasize the car\u2019s technical simplicity and affordability as revolutionary, a closer analysis suggests that these virtues were neither unique nor universally welcomed at the time. The evidence indicates that the Beetle\u2019s initial design brief\u2014lightweight, air-cooled, and accessible\u2014was as much a product of ideological ambition as engineering foresight. The car\u2019s association with state power, and its subsequent adaptation for military use, positioned it ambiguously in the postwar order: both tainted by its origins and uniquely poised for mass mobilization in a devastated Europe.<\/p>\n

Why Did the Beetle Survive When So Many Predicted Its Failure?<\/p>\n

The postwar period saw the Wolfsburg factory and the Beetle itself dismissed as obsolete by British and American automotive experts. The British commission\u2019s recommendation to demolish the plant, and Ford\u2019s refusal to take it over even for free, reveal a profound skepticism about the car\u2019s technical and commercial prospects. Yet, under Heinz Nordhoff\u2019s stewardship, the Beetle defied these predictions. This reversal cannot be attributed solely to the car\u2019s qualities; rather, it reflects the interplay of economic necessity, lack of alternatives, and the unique conditions of postwar Germany. The Beetle\u2019s survival was as much a function of institutional inertia and the absence of viable competitors as it was of consumer demand. Only gradually did its virtues\u2014reliability, simplicity, and affordability\u2014become assets in export markets, particularly as Volkswagen developed efficient distribution and parts networks abroad.<\/p>\n

What Mechanisms Enabled the Beetle\u2019s Global Diffusion and Cultural Transformation?<\/p>\n

The Beetle\u2019s leap from German roads to American driveways and Latin American taxi fleets was neither inevitable nor frictionless. Early American sales were negligible, hindered by lingering anti-German sentiment and the car\u2019s unconventional design. The evidence suggests that the Beetle\u2019s American breakthrough owed as much to shrewd marketing and logistical foresight\u2014such as maintaining robust parts inventories near major ports\u2014as to intrinsic product appeal. In Latin America, the Beetle\u2019s success was structurally distinct: it became a tool of mass motorization, chosen for its low cost of ownership and ease of maintenance, not for its design pedigree. The car\u2019s adaptability\u2014its capacity to serve as a convertible, a four-door taxi, a rally racer, or even an Antarctic research vehicle\u2014further cemented its reputation as a platform rather than a fixed product. This plasticity, more than any single engineering feature, underpins its global resonance.<\/p>\n

How Did the Beetle\u2019s Resistance to Change Become Its Undoing?<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, the very conservatism that made the Beetle a byword for reliability in the 1950s and 1960s became a liability by the 1970s. As competitors introduced more efficient, spacious, and modern vehicles, the Beetle\u2019s design ossified. Volkswagen\u2019s attempts to revive interest through limited editions and incremental updates could not offset the structural disadvantages of its aging platform. The evidence from sales data and regulatory developments\u2014particularly in the United States\u2014suggests that the Beetle\u2019s decline was less a matter of consumer preference than of institutional obsolescence. Safety and emissions standards, as well as shifting expectations around comfort and performance, rendered the Beetle increasingly untenable in advanced markets. Its persistence in places like Mexico and Brazil owed more to local economic conditions and regulatory environments than to any enduring technical superiority.<\/p>\n

Who Benefited and Who Lost as the Beetle\u2019s Era Ended?<\/p>\n

The Beetle\u2019s long twilight in emerging markets, especially as Mexico City\u2019s official taxi, reveals a second-order consequence often overlooked: the car\u2019s role as a vector of economic mobility for working-class drivers. When regulatory changes mandated four-door taxis, the transition away from the Beetle disproportionately affected those for whom its affordability and maintainability were essential. Conversely, as the Beetle aged out of mass-market relevance, it was reborn as a collectible, with pristine examples commanding prices far above their original cost. This reversal\u2014wherein a car designed for the masses becomes an object of elite nostalgia\u2014underscores the volatility of cultural capital in the classic car market. The Beetle\u2019s afterlife as a symbol of individuality, celebrated at gatherings and through customization, stands in ironic contrast to its origins as a standardized people\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

What Structural Blind Spots Persist in Mainstream Narratives of the Beetle?<\/p>\n

Mainstream accounts often romanticize the Beetle\u2019s longevity and ubiquity, but such narratives risk obscuring the structural forces that shaped its fate. The car\u2019s survival was not simply a triumph of design, but a function of geopolitical contingency, institutional inertia, and the absence of alternatives in key markets. Its decline was not merely the result of changing tastes, but of regulatory shifts and the inexorable logic of technological progress. Moreover, the Beetle\u2019s transformation into a collectible object raises questions about the commodification of nostalgia and the erasure of its more problematic historical associations. The evidence suggests that any judgment of the Beetle\u2019s legacy must grapple with these tensions: between utility and symbolism, mass production and individualization, and the persistent shadow of its origins.<\/p>\n

What Should an Informed Reader Conclude About the Beetle\u2019s Legacy?<\/p>\n

The Volkswagen Beetle\u2019s story resists simple moral or technical lessons. Its endurance reflects not just the virtues of simplicity and adaptability, but the complex interplay of historical accident, institutional decision-making, and cultural reinvention. For policymakers and industry observers, the Beetle\u2019s arc cautions against both technological determinism and the myth of inevitable progress. For collectors and enthusiasts, its shifting status\u2014from disposable commodity to cherished artifact\u2014invites reflection on the ways in which value is constructed, contested, and ultimately transformed. The Beetle\u2019s legacy, then, is less a settled fact than an ongoing negotiation\u2014one that mirrors the broader dynamics of memory, identity, and material culture in the modern era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

As production of the latest ‘new’ Beetle ends, join us as we explore the Beetle\u2019s multifaceted, long-running history<\/p>\n

\n

The third-generation VW Beetle has come to the end of its life.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The last one was produced today.\u00a0At 81\u00a0years old, the Volkswagen Beetle has been everywhere and it has done it all.\u00a0 It started life as a people\u2019s car in Germany, it became America\u2019s darling before heading south to put much of Latin America on wheels\u00a0and it is now one of the most sought-after classic cars. It has conquered land, water and air. It has won races, shuttled scientists in Antarctica and carried millions of passengers in Mexico City.<\/p>\n

Join us as we explore the Beetle\u2019s multifaceted history.<\/p>\n

\n

Porsche\u2019s vision<\/h2>\n

\"Porsche\u2019s\n<\/p>\n

Engineer Ferdinand Porsche is associated with some of the greatest designs in automotive history, including Auto-Union\u2019s formidable 16-cylinder race cars and, of course, the high-performance machines that bear his name. Yet from an early age he envisioned a simple, basic car that even factory workers could afford. This was slightly less than revolutionary in an era when cars were an expensive commodity and many intended to keep them that way.<\/p>\n

Adolf Hitler shared Porsche\u2019s vision of a small car and gave him the means to design one. The early design brief called for a 650kg four-seater model capable of maintaining 62mph with a one-liter engine rated at approximately 26hp. It needed to be air-cooled to keep running in Germany\u2019s colder regions. Note:<\/em><\/strong> early prototype pictured.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The type 60 (1938)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

German officials considered outsourcing production of the Volkswagen to an established auto-maker but they ultimately decided to built it themselves in a state-owned factory. Testing began in 1936 and Porsche built the first pre-production prototypes of what would become the Beetle in 1938. Called type 60 internally, it was very close to the regular-production Beetle in nearly every aspect.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle during the war<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Volkswagen workers built 210 examples of the Beetle by hand before World War II broke out.<\/p>\n

During the war, Porsche\u2019s design office adapted the Beetle for military use by raising its ground clearance, adding four-wheel drive and fitting a more powerful engine. The basic chassis also spawned the Kubelwagen and the amphibious Schwimmwagen (pictured), which were sent to fight in Europe and in Africa as Germany\u2019s home-brewed\u00a0answer to the Jeep.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle nearly replaces the 2CV (1940)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

In July 1940, the German forces occupying France examined early Citroen 2CV prototypes sitting on the idle assembly line. They asked Citroen to hand over three cars — which officials promised would only be shown to Hitler, not the company’s rivals — and offered to send a version of Germany’s new people’s car. Documents in Citroen’s archives department don’t mention the Beetle by name but they note Germany volunteered to send the car’s creator, Ferdinand Porsche, to France to answer questions about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Citroen had no interest in building the Beetle. The Germans returned with the same offer six times; the French firm stood its ground. They brought a Beetle on their final visit. Citroen ordered its workers to immediately cover it with a tarp and ordered everyone present to ignore it. The firm never built a single Beetle. It notes the army’s visits partially explained why it completely (and secretly) redesigned the 2CV during the war.<\/p>\n

\n

The postwar years<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

The Allied Forces bombed the Wolfsburg factory repeatedly. When peace returned, the facility could only produce cars on sunny days because air raids destroyed most of its roof. Workers nonetheless managed to make a small handful of Beetles by hand while stepping over debris and dodging falling bricks. In the postwar years, the factory was the only source of work in the area.<\/p>\n

The plant ultimately fell into what was designated the British zone of Germany. The British military opened a repair shop in it to keep employees busy while exploring every available option to find a solution to the Wolfsburg problem.<\/p>\n

\n

The world\u2019s most undesirable car<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

In 1945, a British commission headed by William Rootes visited the rubble and bluntly recommended knocking down the plant. Commission members didn\u2019t want the Beetle, either. \u2018The vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirements of a motorcar,\u2019 Rootes concluded. He added the Beetle \u2013 which he called ugly and noisy \u2013 wouldn\u2019t present a threat to British cars sold around the world if, after a magnificent stroke of luck, the factory somehow managed to mass-produce it.<\/p>\n

In March 1948, a delegation including Henry Ford II traveled to Cologne, Germany, to negotiate the terms of a potential takeover. England was ready to give the Volkswagen factory to Ford for free in a last-ditch bid to get rid of it once and for all. Ernest Breech, the firm\u2019s chairman of the board, urged Ford to turn down the offer.<\/p>\n

He famously said \u2018Mr. Ford, I don\u2019t think what we are being offered here is worth a damn!’<\/p>\n

\n

The road to recovery<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

With the Americans out of the picture, the British later gave control of the Wolfsburg factory to the German state and placed a former General Motors executive named Heinz Nordhoff in charge of it. Quickly, he proved wrong the skeptics who doggedly insisted the Beetle would inspire record amounts of dislike among motorists and die in a few months’ time.<\/p>\n

Volkswagen built 10,200 examples of the Beetle in 1946. By October 1948, the factory made a car every three and a half minutes, a cadence that represented about 2154 units per month. Better yet, the company needed to fill 15,000 orders placed in Germany and 7000 orders from abroad. The future looked bright.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle arrives in America (1949)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

More than a few members of the American military likely left Germany with a Beetle in tow but these private imports were poorly documented. Dutch businessman Ben Pon became the first person to ship a Beetle to the US in order to sell it. The car disembarked in New York City in January 1949.<\/p>\n

Pon had no trouble finding a buyer for the Beetle in spite of a prevalent anti-German sentiment. He returned to Holland and shipped another one back to America, which he also sold in record time. He later became America’s first Volkswagen importer.<\/p>\n

\n

America\u2019s first Beetle, by the numbers (1949)<\/h2>\n

\"America\u2019s\n<\/p>\n

In 1949, the Beetle came with a 1.1-liter air-cooled flat-four engine rated at 30hp. It cost\u00a0$1280, a figure which converts to approximately $13,000 today. Volkswagen sold merely two examples of the Beetle in America during 1949. Sales went up to 270 units in 1950.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle goes topless (1949)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Stunningly simple, the Beetle was a coachbuilder\u2019s dream. Karmann built the first civilian convertible Beetle in 1949 and other companies quickly took turns putting their own unique spin on Wolfsburg\u2019s people\u2019s car. The example pictured here wears a body made by Dannenhauer & Stauss of Stuttgart, Germany, and it\u2019s equipped with an upgraded engine tuned by Oettinger to make 40hp. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle in the 1950s<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Beetle sales sky-rocketed during the 1950s as Volkswagen exported it to an increasing number of countries around the world. While the basic shape of the body stayed the same, the company made several small changes to the design including replacing the split rear window with a single oval unit in 1953 and fitting a new, more powerful engine a year later. Volkswagen manufactured the 500,000th Beetle in July 1953.<\/p>\n

\n

The four-door Beetle (1953)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Berlin-based coachbuilder Rometsch wisely identified a market for a four-door version of the Beetle, a variant Volkswagen refused to build due largely to a lack of production capacity. It extended the wheelbase by 250mm and added a set of rear-hinged doors. Volkswagen\u2019s records indicate about 50 examples were built. Taxi drivers seeking an extra dose of practicality scooped up most of the production run.<\/p>\n

\n

The one millionth Volkswagen (1955)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Volkswagen made its one-millionth car in August 1955. Still owned by the firm today, the milestone Beetle received a gold paint job with diamonds embedded into both bumpers, both running boards, the front headlight bezels and nearly every piece of trim. The seats wore commemorative pink upholstery.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle\u2019s glory days (1960s)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

The Beetle’s popularity swelled during the 1960s, especially in America thanks in part to a clever advertising campaign. Unlike rivals Renault and Fiat, Volkswagen kept large supplies of spare parts close to the American coasts so owners who needed a headlight, for example, could get one in a week instead of waiting a month for it to arrive by boat from Europe.<\/p>\n

Cheap, cheerful\u00a0and reliable, the Beetle became America\u2019s favorite small car.\u00a0Many Americans bought a Beetle as their first car out of college or as a second car for their family.<\/p>\n

Volkswagen exported 423,008 Beetles to America in 1968 alone. In comparison, Volkswagen of America sold about 340,000 cars in 2017. By the 1970s, the Beetle and its various derivatives (including the Bus and the Karmann Ghia) gave Wolfsburg a 5.6-percent share of the new passenger car market in the US.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle in Antarctica (1963)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

In the early 20th century, intrepid explorers (including Ernest Shackleton) occasionally brought cars on their missions to Antarctica in an optimistic attempt to cover more ground than on a sled while avoiding frostbite in relative comfort. Things didn\u2019t work quite as planned, as was often the case in polar exploration. Some of the cars they enlisted didn\u2019t have a roof; all of them suffered from a frozen cooling system, got stuck in the snow, or both.<\/p>\n

In late\u00a01962, the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE) asked Volkswagen\u2019s Australian division for a locally-built Beetle to use during a year-long mission. The company agreed and provided the scientists with a car painted in Ruby Red. Nicknamed \u2018Red Terror,\u2019 it performed admirably in spite of the strong winds and the tantalizingly cold temperatures it encountered daily. The modifications required to tame Antarctica in an air-cooled Volkswagen included adding a second battery to help the flat-four start, fitting tire chains\u00a0and filling the crankcase with thinner oil.<\/p>\n

The Beetle returned to Australia in 1964, participated in (and won) the BP Round Australia Rally and promptly disappeared. Its whereabouts remain unknown today.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle swims (1964)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Sicilians have spent decades patiently waiting for a long-promised bridge over the Strait of Messina. In 1964, an Italian Beetle owner decided to take the matter into his own hands and drive across the two-mile stretch of Mediterranean that separates the island from the Italian mainland. He achieved this seemingly extraordinary feat by simply re-routing his Beetle\u2019s intake and exhaust systems and bolting a propeller to engine\u2019s crankshaft.<\/p>\n

Oddly, this wasn\u2019t the last time a Beetle would swim. Another Beetle (pictured) later crossed the Irish Sea between the Isle of Mann and the English County of Cumberland.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle gets a new face (1967)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

1967 brought the Beetle\u2019s first major visual update. Volkswagen replaced the sloped headlights the car had worn since the 1930s with upright units and fitted larger rear lights with integrated reverse lights. The changes also included new bumpers on both ends, four-lug steel wheels and a redesigned dashboard. You can call it a mid-cycle update; it occured almost exactly halfway through the Beetle’s unusually long production run.<\/p>\n

Significantly, Volkswagen also added two-speed windshield wipers, a 12-volt electrical system\u00a0and an upgraded brake system. A semi-automatic transmission aptly named Automatic Stick Shift (we won\u2019t provide you with the acronym) joined the list of options a year later.<\/p>\n

\n

The Super Beetle (1970)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

The next major change arrived in time for the 1971 model year, when Volkswagen introduced the Super Beetle (known as the 1302 in most global markets). McPherson struts replaced the torsion beam front suspension, allowing engineers to mount the spare tire horizontally and address one of the Beetle’s biggest shortcomings by carving\u00a0out a bigger trunk.\u00a0All told, Volkswagen boasted it made 89 improvements to the Beetle to make it worthy of the Super prefix.<\/p>\n

The brand displayed an unusually high level of foresight when it added a diagnostic port in the engine bay. It allowed technicians to monitor the rear lights, the condition of the charging circuit, the engine\u2019s compression and the ignition timing.<\/p>\n

The upgrades came at a slight cost. In 1972, the Super Beetle cost $1985 (about $11,824 today). The standard Beetle cost $1845 (roughly $10,990 today) that same year.<\/p>\n

\n

Volkswagen vs. Ford<\/h2>\n

\"Volkswagen\n<\/p>\n

Volkswagen built the 15,007,034th Beetle in February 1972, a number not as random as it might initially seem. It meant the Beetle had passed the Ford Model T to become the best-selling car in history. Volkswagen celebrated the occasion with a special model named Weltmeister, a word that means \u2018world champion\u2019 in German. Based on the 1302 S, it stood out with metallic blue paint and special wheels.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle\u2019s final evolution (1972)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

The 1303 arrived in August of 1972 as a 1973 model. It retained the Super Beetle designation in America. Volkswagen added a curved windshield for safety reasons; it reduced the risk of glass cutting the passengers during a front-end collision. The dashboard inevitably got bigger while the hood shrunk correspondingly.<\/p>\n

\n

Yellow black racer (1972)<\/h2>\n

\"Yellow\n<\/p>\n

Enthusiasts raced the Beetle in a wide variety of motorsport events ranging from the Monte-Carlo Rally to the Baja 1000, though they rarely went racing with factory support. In 1972, Volkswagen finally answered to calls for a sportier model by releasing a limited-edition model named GSR, an acronym that stood for gelb schwarzer renner (\u2018yellow black racer\u2019 in German). Though not exactly the GTI of the Beetle family, it looked the part with a flat black hood, wider steel wheels, a three-spoke steering wheel and sport seats for the front passengers.<\/p>\n

Volkswagen made not the slightest modification to the engine. The GSR retained a 50-horsepower 1.6-liter flat-four from the stock 1303 S. However, every example came with a list of company-approved aftermarket tuners capable of extracting every last horse out of the four-cylinder. Most examples were tuned, raced and driven into the ground. Volkswagen estimates about 100 GSRs are left today out of a 3500-strong production run.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle runs out of breath<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

The Beetle\u2019s strong resistance to change helped it conquer the world in the 1960s but it backfired during the 1970s. More modern competitors like Honda\u2019s superb Civic and Volkswagen’s own Golf used less gas, offered more space for both passengers and cargo and often cost less. Volkswagen attempted to breathe\u00a0new life into the Beetle by launching an armada of limited-edition models in Europe and in America, like the Jeans pictured above.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle exits America (1979)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Volkswagen of America stopped selling the Beetle sedan at the end of 1976. The Convertible soldiered on through 1979. It couldn\u2019t last much longer because it became increasingly difficult (and expensive) for Volkswagen to make it compliant with safety and emissions regulations in the US.<\/p>\n

In its final year on the market, it came equipped with a 1.6-liter flat-four that relied on electronic fuel-injection to produce 48hp. Pricing started at $6800, which represents $23,300 today. In comparison, a 2018 Beetle Convertible starts at $25,440.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2026 but lives on elsewhere (1979)<\/h2>\n

\"\u2026\n<\/p>\n

Though Wolfsburg no longer built the Beetle, it remained available as the brand\u2019s entry-level model in several European markets until 1985. Production continued in several nations including Mexico, Brazil and South Africa. The Brazilian factory notably supplied complete knock-down kits to Nigeria.<\/p>\n

The Beetle remained immensely popular in Mexico, where decision-makers elected it the official cab of Mexico City in 1972. They correctly argued the Beetle was more affordable to buy than big, V8-powered American cars and appreciably cheaper to operate.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle takes flight (1995)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Every year, a small town in the Swiss Alps named Ch\u00e2teau-d’\u0152x hosts a hot-air balloon festival. The same town also organizes an annual Beetle gathering. Do you see where we\u2019re going with this?<\/p>\n

In 1995, participants threw logic to the wind and fused the two hobbies by building an unlikely Beetle-based balloon. They stripped the Beetle\u2019s interior to shed as much weight as possible, fitted it with a burner and sent it into the clouds. It lived to tell the tale and somehow found (or floated) its way to the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg.<\/p>\n

\n

The last Beetle (2003)<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

At the turn of the millennium, it became evident the Mexican market couldn\u2019t prop up the 62-year old Beetle on its own for much longer. Annual sales dropped from 41,600 in 2000 to about 23,000 in 2002. The final nail in its coffin came in 2002, when officials ruled every car operating as a taxi in Mexico City needed to have four doors for safety reasons. No one considered re-launching production of the Rometsch taxi from the 1950s; they simply steered taxi drivers towards the Nissan Tsuru.<\/p>\n

Volkswagen sent off the Beetle with a limited edition named Ultima Edicion available in blue or beige. Every Ultima Edicion came with retro-inspired add-ons like chromed trim, whitewall tires and an old-style Wolfsburg emblem on the bottom of the hood. The last Beetle rolled off the Puebla, Mexico, assembly line on 30 July 2003 and traveled straight to the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg. It marked the end of a 65-year old production run during which 21,529,464 cars were built.<\/p>\n

\n

The Beetle today<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

No longer a disposable used car, the Beetle has clawed back from the Death Valley of automotive depreciation to become a sought-after classic car. It\u2019s more than just a machine to travel from A to B; it\u2019s an emblem that has transcended generations with its friendly face and its humble demeanor.<\/p>\n

In many countries a Beetle in tip-top shape costs more today than when it was new, a monstrously ironic feat considering its roots as an affordable people\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

\n

Beetle gatherings<\/h2>\n

\"Beetle\n<\/p>\n

There are countless Beetle gatherings and owner\u2019s club all over the world. One of the largest in Europe takes place annually in northern Germany. Called Beetle Sunshine Tour, it\u2019s such a significant even that Volkswagen chose it as the venue to introduce the updated 2017 Beetle in 2016. It\u2019s open to the classic air-cooled Beetle, the New Beetle and the modern-day Beetle.<\/p>\n

\n

Make it your own<\/h2>\n

\"Make\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nearly impossible to find two identical cars at the Beetle Sunshine Tour. Some remain stock, but a majority of the examples on display are wildly customized. This German-registered 1303 convertible showcases almost every modification documented in the encyclopedia of automotive tuning.<\/p>\n

\n

The unfortunate ones<\/h2>\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

Even as values continue to rise, not every Beetle gets treated to a pan-off restoration before getting stuffed in a heated garage. Some are simply too far gone to save. This unfortunate example is ending its days at the bottom of an abandoned quarry in the south of France.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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