The VW Beetle

The Volkswagen Beetle idea came from Hitler himself, while he was in prison. He planned to make the people’s car that would be affordable to most people. A special task was given to Stuttgart, aimed to design this ‘Beetle’ in less than 10 months, as specifically instructed by Hitler when he got in power. It was a family car aimed to transport around 5 people, while keeping the engine running cost as low as possible for the families. Also it could not be marketed at more than £86. Known as the Type 60 it ran with a 4-cylinder engine, that was the best economical option and was the VW engine design for more than 30 years. Production started in 1939, but was halted due to WW2. In 1939 only more than 150,000 units where produced.  

After the war, production continued with different models. In 1950 the first convertible beetle was produced known as type 2. Though through the years different models were introduced none was as successful as the original model of the beetle. This forced the VW company to go back to the original beetle like model of the 1930’s. In fact in 1970 the 1302 model was released. In 1973 the 1303 was also introduced. These models kept with the original model of the old beetle, but the interior and engine were completely changed. As new technologies were introduced these were implemented in the beetle to be more comfortable and also the engine was increased to a 1.6ltr. in 1972 the Beetle broke the record of the most produced car. Only 2 years after VW announced that they had made a loss of 140 million sterling. This was the beginning of the end for the beetle. In fact in 1974 the Wolfsburg company ceased its production of the beetle and started producing the Golf.

 

In 1994 the beetle re-emerged, this time a modern beetle that was a copy of the old but more modern. VW sales increased as soon as it was put in the markets, also thanks to the new powerful engine that was increased in size, with an average of same consumption of the old engines.

References:

- A Brief History of the Beetle, 2014, 'A brief History of the Beetle' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vsvwa.freeservers.com/bughist2.html [Accessed at 25 January 2014]