The bug is going to be squashed

It’s the end of an era. This month, the last ever VW beetle will roll off the production line in a factory in Mexico. And whether or not you’re a fan (at Desperateseller.co.uk, we definitely are!) of this particular car, you have to admit that it’s endured. After all, it was first produced in - wait for it – 1938! Since then over 21 million Beetles have been made.

But, at last, the bug is going to be squashed. And we thought it would be appropriate to pay tribute to this iconic vehicle by running through some of the more interesting facts which have marked the car’s card during its lifetime.

It was Hitler’s baby. Or was it?
Most people think that Adolf Hitler was the man behind the Beetle. And it’s true. Sort of. He certainly wanted a car that would spread car ownership in the way the Ford model T had in the US. So he enlisted auto engineer Ferdinand Porsche (yep, the very same) to make “the people’s car.” But rumours that Hitler directly designed the car are probably false - though he may have been the one who suggested that it should look like a beetle (he had read somewhere that you achieve a streamlined design by observing nature).

It was a flop in America. But only for a year.
When it was introduced in the US in 1949, Americans shunned the Beetle. Big Time. In fact, only two were sold in the first year of availability. After that, though, sales grew quickly. By the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Bugs were sold every year, peaking at 570,000 in 1970.

It wasn’t – officially – called the beetle until it was 30 years old.
Actually, it was originally called the Volkswagen Type 1. But with its curves and rounded top, it wasn’t long before the US and UK public started referring to it as a beetle or bug. This became such a popular nickname that Volkswagen Decided to capitalise on this popularity in the late 1960s, when they officially started referring to the car as the VW Beetle.

The Beetle inspired the ‘best ad campaign in 100 years’.
During the 1990s, the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach ran a campaign which urged car buyers to ‘think small’. This was so successful that, in 1999, it was judged by Advertising Age to be the best campaign of the last 100 years, ahead of Coca-Cola, Marlboro, Nike, and McDonald’s. The quirky concept and copy turned out to be a game-changer for the entire advertising industry.

There’s a version that’s gold-plated
When the millionth VW Beetle was produced in 1955, the company marked the milestone by plating the car in gold and giving it diamante accents. They also created a Beetle with a wicker body, in collaboration with master basket-maker Thomas Heinrich.

British car manufacturers spurned the opportunity to make it.
After the war, the VW factory in Wolfsburg was supposed to be taken over by the British. But no British car manufacturer could be found who was prepared to take it on. Among the reasons given were (a) ˜the vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirement of a motor-car,˜ (b) ˜it is quite unattractive to the average buyer,˜ and (c) ˜To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise.˜ So. Good judgement, then.