Goodbye Beetle, 69 years and 21 million cars later

First mass-produced in Germany under Allied supervision in 1945, the bug-eyed Beetle has always been a powerful symbol. In the United States in the 1960s, the Bug and its toaster-shaped cousin, the VW bus, became the anti-establishment transport of choice. No other model of car has been so enduring, said VW spokesman Thomas Karig. Toyota Corollas and Volkswagen’s own Golf may have sold more over the years, but all have often changed sizes, shapes and styles, he said.

Beetles rolling off the Puebla assembly line today are basically identical to the model designed by the legendary Ferdinand Porsche in the 1930s. Karig said the closest phenomenon to the Beetle was the Ford Model T, which sold more than 15 million cars.

Its iconoclastic ‘beep-beep’ was the automotive equivalent of Woodstock, the perfect way to stick it to Daddy and his big square Detroit dullmobiles.

The 1969 goofball classic movie, ‘The Love Bug,’ about a Beetle named Herbie, spawned fan clubs and books and gave the world a reason to ponder Buddy Hackett. Beetle owners around the world still hold weekend meetings and road rallies—there are 80 clubs in Mexico alone.

Generations of people worldwide learned to drive following the gear pattern printed on the Beetle’s ashtray, had their first kiss in a Beetle or drove off to college in one. Alma Gutierrez had a baby in a Beetle taxi.

Volkswagen will continue to make the stylish New Beetle, which it introduced in 1997. The company stopped producing the old Beetles in Germany in 1978 and in its second-biggest production line, in Brazil, in 1996. That left Puebla as the only plant in the world still making the classic car.

‘‘The Volkswagon, (called vocho in Mexico) is a battle car, and nothing can stop it.’’ Mexico City architect Nadia Barceles, 25, remembers. While Bugs have become a rarer sight on US streets and Europe, they still dominate in Mexico. Surveys have shown that at least 70 per cent of Mexican families have owned a Beetle.

As one of the very few foreign companies producing cars in Mexico, Volkswagen cornered the market with its cheap vochos (Beetle is called vocho in Mexico) . But since then, Mexico has opened its economy to the world, and Mexican consumers are now flooded with all models of imported cars. Production of the old Beetle has fallen to just 23,000 last year, from its peak of more than 1,00,000 in 1993. Of the 10,000 workers making cars at the plant here, only 270 still work on vochos. ‘‘So the time has come for the Beetle at last,’’ Karig said.

On the assembly line here in Puebla, workers are preparing a special farewell edition of the Beetle, to be unveiled July 10, with surprise colours and styling. Benjamin Perez Morales, who has been making vochos for 32 years, said, ‘‘I’ll be relocated to another line.’’

‘But the vocho has been my whole life. And it will always be my whole life,’’ Perez added. (LAT-WP)