The Beetle truly shaped the world's conscious when it came to the automobile. With over 21.5 million Beetles sold worldwide since it was first introduced just over 70 years ago, it's easy to see why the Beetle is and was so influential in the automotive world—and not just in Europe.
North Americans embraced the Beetle as a care-free, go-anywhere car that meant road trips and first dates; college cars and family weekend drives. The Beetle meant freedom, the Beetle meant good times. From picnic outings to rally races, the Bug was prepared to take it all on, and it did it in pure pop-culture style. Despite its birth in a time of unrest and uncertainty (just before WWII on Hitler's command), the VW blossomed into a vehicular sunflower in the automotive industry. And speaking of flowers...
From a rugged, tough, beat-into-the-ground, go-anywhere, multipurpose vehicle, the Beetle suddenly became a girlie, cutesy city car when it was relaunched in 1998. Rounded from all angles, colourful to a fault and sporting flowers in a vase on the dash, the VW Beetle's image suddenly changed. And it wasn't that it changed for the worst, just that it changed, and perhaps in that change they lost more followers than they'd hoped to gain. Thanks to the Bug's pastel colours and floral dash, the majority of Beetle owners were suddenly women and the retro-style vehicle was suddenly the “Woman's Car” instead of the “People's Car”.
From '97 to 2003, something about the Beetle was altered, and not in its physical shape, but in how the public collectively perceived it. The Bug slipped into the shadows at Volks, and the Golf and Jetta took centre stage. Suddenly, the iconic breadwinner was no longer in the limelight, and it seemed as if no one really noticed it was gone.
Until now.
When Volkswagen announced the arrival of the 21st Century Beetle with a simple two-line silhouette image, the world went bonkers. Finally, the Beetle was back. The heritage, the history, the story-telling, the experience, the emotion, the feelings – all of it. With nothing more than 2 lines on a plain background and the cutest commercial ever (the beetle racing through the forest), the world was already waiting with baited breath to see what VW had in store.
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| VW celebrates its 20 millionth Beetle sale in Mexico in 1981 (Photo: Volkswagen) |
North Americans embraced the Beetle as a care-free, go-anywhere car that meant road trips and first dates; college cars and family weekend drives. The Beetle meant freedom, the Beetle meant good times. From picnic outings to rally races, the Bug was prepared to take it all on, and it did it in pure pop-culture style. Despite its birth in a time of unrest and uncertainty (just before WWII on Hitler's command), the VW blossomed into a vehicular sunflower in the automotive industry. And speaking of flowers...
From a rugged, tough, beat-into-the-ground, go-anywhere, multipurpose vehicle, the Beetle suddenly became a girlie, cutesy city car when it was relaunched in 1998. Rounded from all angles, colourful to a fault and sporting flowers in a vase on the dash, the VW Beetle's image suddenly changed. And it wasn't that it changed for the worst, just that it changed, and perhaps in that change they lost more followers than they'd hoped to gain. Thanks to the Bug's pastel colours and floral dash, the majority of Beetle owners were suddenly women and the retro-style vehicle was suddenly the “Woman's Car” instead of the “People's Car”.
From '97 to 2003, something about the Beetle was altered, and not in its physical shape, but in how the public collectively perceived it. The Bug slipped into the shadows at Volks, and the Golf and Jetta took centre stage. Suddenly, the iconic breadwinner was no longer in the limelight, and it seemed as if no one really noticed it was gone.
Until now.
When Volkswagen announced the arrival of the 21st Century Beetle with a simple two-line silhouette image, the world went bonkers. Finally, the Beetle was back. The heritage, the history, the story-telling, the experience, the emotion, the feelings – all of it. With nothing more than 2 lines on a plain background and the cutest commercial ever (the beetle racing through the forest), the world was already waiting with baited breath to see what VW had in store.
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| No matter what the year, the Beetle was a rockin' convertible (Photo: Volkswagen) |