Starting from dark beginnings, the Volkswagen Beetle is now an iconic car, made so loved partly from the film Herbie. My car is a bright yellow Beetle (Bertie), and I love it (him), I thought it would be interesting to look into it, as my little car seems to be an important part of design history.
You’ll likely know of the Beetle’s dark beginnings as Hitlers' so-called ‘people's car’. When the car was first produced it was just known as the Volkswagen, which means ‘peoples car’ in German, and the name ‘Beetle’ actually started as a nickname that came from its shape. Production began in 1945, and 21.5 million of that first generation were produced, which made it the most-produced car of all time. It was a masterpiece of ground-breaking design at the time. It was compact and inexpensive.
The car was designed by Ferdinand Porsche and enabled by Adolf Hitler. The concept was to produce a 5 seater saloon for the German family, that could make use of the country's new autobahn and cost 31 weeks' pay for the average German worker. However it wasn’t as simple as just buying one, you had to join a government saving scheme; ‘Kraft durch Freude’, or (Strength through Joy).
After the war, the Beetle became extremely successful, and in the ’60s was the biggest-selling foreign-made car in America. Later in the 90’s the Beetle became the base for the VW Golf, but the Beetle reigns as the most produced car in history with 40 million being produced between 1945 and 2003. It shows just how charming the Beetle is that it managed to do so well in a post-war world full of anti-German feelings. It's also ironic that it became a bit of a symbol of the flower-power ’60s, far I'm sure from what it was planned to represent when it was designed.
Bertie is a 2003 baby and for being 20 years old and having over 100,000 miles on the clock, he is driving extremely well. It is worth noting that my dad was a VW mechanic, so a fair amount of work and maintenance has happened, but Bertie is going strong, and I am very attached to my little car. The Beetle has been reintroduced a few times since 2003, but I personally think that the later models don’t quite have the same charm. The new Beetles look more sporty, but I miss the super curvy lines of the older models with the bright flower popping up over the dashboard. It is cute and nostalgic.
An interesting fact about the Beetle is that the handbrake well is the wrong way round for British drivers. The car is designed for a right-hand drive, and it was decided that it wasn’t worth producing different tooling for the British left-hand versions. A small issue, but a little annoying.
My one single bugbear (see what I did there) is that your rear vision is SHOCKING in my Beetle. The cute, iconic arching roof, specifically the section between the rear window and back side windows, is perfectly positioned to completely block your view when pulling off a slip road. After driving it for 4 years I have become used to it, but when learning to drive, it is quite scary and annoying. Either it’s a design feature that was simply overlooked, or it just happens to bother me. The back seats are pretty tiny, and not good if you are over 5 foot 5, but I very rarely have anyone in the back so it doesn’t bother me. When the back seats flip down, you have a very sizeable boot space, which has made moving in and out of flats much easier.
There are some murmurings that my little car might be a ‘future classic’ and I think I might have to use that as a good excuse to hold onto it. In reality, I am a very sentimental person and would probably be attached to whatever first car I had, but Bertie, being so iconic, makes the attachment that much greater. The girl who owned the car before was a GSA student, so it must have been fate! Maybe, just like Herbie, Bertie, the Beetle has a little bit of magic about him…
This is Bertie for reference:
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