History of the Volkswagen Beetle

by Patrick Sills

It was a Saturday morning in late 1977. I had graduated from high school a few months earlier, but it would still be three years before I moved away from my parents to venture out on my own. My father was reading the newsp...read more

by Alan Sidorov

This is the story of Adolf's baby.The original Beetle, the real one and not the rebodied Golf, finally went out of production a few years ago. For quite a while before that, the Beetle had been built only in Mexico, though...read more

by Ken Johnstone

The VW Beetle, which began its life as Adolf Hitler's low cost "people's car", needs little introduction; its rounded exterior and the distinctive sound of its air-cooled engine is familiar anywhere in the world. The la...read more

by Michael Copley

A Tangled Web: The Bugs in the Beetle Story Time and again one hears that Ferdinand Porsche designed the Beetle at Hitler's request forever linking what was the favorite car of generations with the sound of jackboots on...read more

by Delmer Padgett

When the last original model Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the Puebla, Mexico assembly line in 2003 it was truly the end of an era. During its long production run nearly twenty-two million "Bugs" were produced worldwide. Th...read more

by Tabitha Hergest

The lovable Volkswagen Beetle - Herbie - the original "people's car". It's hard to imagine that it all started as part of a totalitarian nightmare. The original car, the KdF ("kraft durch freude", roughly translated as...read more

by Paul Lines

Originally conceived and based upon the shape of the Porsche, with its sloping rear end, the idea for the Volkswagen, or "People's car" was born in 1933from an idea created by Adolf Hitler. Hitler's dream was for a car to ...read more

by Shenni Bubb

The Volkswagen Beetle Deemed affectionately "the beetle" or the "bug" was actually thought destined for an early death. Yet outlived its expected life span, and showed that the predictions were so far from right. What a...read more