NationMaster - Encyclopedia: VW Beetle

The Volkswagen Beetle or Bug is a small family car, the best known car of Volkswagen, of Germany, and almost certainly the world. Thanks to its distinctive shape and sound, and its reliability, it now enjoys a "cult" status. A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ... Volkswagen (VW) is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. ... The Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is one of the worlds leading industrialised countries, located in the heart of Europe. ... In religion and sociology, a cult is a group of people devoted to beliefs and goals which are not held by the majority of society, often religious in nature. ...

The Beetle was in production from 1938 until 2003, interrupted only by the Second World War. Over 21 million Beetles were produced. 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Events January January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

The "Beetle" name was not originally given to the car. Inside Volkswagen, it was simply the "Type 1" until the 1968 model year (August 1967), when, for the first time, the German brochures used the name "DER KÄFER" on the front cover and inside. The Beetle name was later reused when the New Beetle was introduced.in 1998.

History

The origins of the car date back to 1930s Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler wanted private motorized transport to be widely available and commissioned Ferdinand Porsche to produce such a vehicle based on the design (http://www.hitler.org/artifacts/volkswagen/) Hitler created in 1932. Hitler decreed that this car should be capable of transporting two adults and three children at a speed of 100 km/h, and that it should cost no more than a motorcycle and sidecar to buy. A savings scheme was also launched that would enable people to buy the car. However the advent and aftermath of World War II meant that those who paid into the scheme never received their cars. VW Beetle taken by C Ford 2003 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented Science Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun, is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh British biologist Arthur Tansley coins term ecosystem War, peace and politics Socialists proclaim The death of Capitalism Rise to... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945), a German politician who was the founder of the Third Reich (1933-1945), is widely regarded as one of the most significant and reviled leaders in world history. ... Ferdinand Porsche (September 3, 1875 - January 30, 1951) was a Bohemian-born German automotive engineer born in Vratislavice, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic), who developed the original Volkswagen and a prototype of the Tiger I tank. ...

Prototypes of the car called the KdF-Wagen (German: Kraft durch Freude = strength through joy), appeared from 1935 onwards—the first prototypes were produced by Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart. The car already had its distinctive round shape (designed by Erwin Komenda) and air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine. However, the factory (in the new town of Kdf-Stadt, purpose-built for the factory workers) had only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. Consequently the first volume-produced versions of the car's chassis (if not body) were military vehicles, the jeep-like Kübelwagen (approx. 52,000 built) and the amphibious Schwimmwagen (approx. 14,000 built). Kraft durch Freude (abbreviated KdF and meaning strength through joy), was a large state-controlled leisure organization in Nazi Germany, a part of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF), the national German labour organization. ... Stuttgart is a city located in southern Germany, it is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg, and has a population of approximately 600,000 as of June 2004. ... Erwin Komenda (April 6, 1904 - August 22, 1966) was the designer of the bodies for the VW Beetle and various Porsche sports cars. ... Engine cooling is the process of cooling an engine by using either air or liquid. ... A flat-4 is a four cylinder internal combustion engine where the cylinders are arranged in a flat configuration. ... An engine is something that produces some effect from a given input. ... Categories: Cities in Germany | Towns in Lower Saxony | Company towns | Germany-related stubs ... Jeep is an automobile marque of DaimlerChrysler. ... Kübelwagen is an abbreviation from German Kübelsitzwagen which literally means bucket seat car. It was a generic name for open-topped military utility cars fitted with bucket seats. ... The VW-Schwimmwagen was an amphibious vehicle used extensively by the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the Second World War. ...

Deliberately designed to be as simple as possible mechanically, there was simply less that could go wrong; the radiator-less air-cooled 985 cm³ 25 hp (19 kW) motors proved especially effective in action in North Africa's desert heat. A handful of civilian-spec Beetles were produced, primarily for the Nazi elite, in the years 1940-1945, but production figures were small. In response to gasoline shortages, a few wartime "Holzbrenner" Beetles were steam-powered with wood burning boilers under the hood. In addition to the Kubelwagen, Schwimmwagen, and a handful of others, the factory managed another wartime vehicle: the Kommandeurwagen; a Beetle body mounted on the 4WD Kubelwagen chassis. A total of 669 Kommandeurwagens were produced until 1945, when all production was halted due to heavy damage sustained in Allied air raids on the factory. Much of the essential equipment had already been moved to underground bunkers for protection, allowing production to resume quickly once hostilities had ended.

Much of the Beetle's design was inspired by the advanced Tatra cars of Hans Ledwinka, particularly the T97. This also had a streamlined body and a rear-mounted 4 cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine. Tatra sued, but the lawsuit was stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. The matter was re-opened after WW2 and in 1961 Volkswagen paid Tatra 3,000,000 Deutsche Marks. These damages meant that Volkswagen had little money for the development of new models and the Beetle's production life was necessarily extended. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Tatra (named after the Tatra mountains) is a vehicle manufacturer in the Czech Republic. ... Ledwinka, Hans (born in Klosterneuburg (Lower Austria),1878, died in Munich (Germany),1967) was an Austrian automobile designer. ... Czechoslovakia (Czech: Československo, Slovak: Česko-Slovensko/before 1990 Československo) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1992 (except for the World War II period). ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... 1961 (As MAD Magazine pointed out on its first cover for the year) was the first upside-down year - i. ... A 10 Deutsche Mark banknote from Germany 1993 showing Carl Friedrich Gauss (http://www. ...

The Volkswagen company owes its postwar existence largely to one man, British army officer Major Ivan Hirst (1916–2000). Post-war, he was ordered to take control of the heavily bombed factory, which the Americans had captured. He persuaded the British military to order 20,000 of the cars, and by 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month. The car and its town changed their Nazi-era names, to Volkswagen (people's car) and Wolfsburg. The first 1,785 Beetles were made in a factory near Wolfsburg in 1945. Picture taken by User:Minesweeper on December 14, 2003 and released into the public domain. ... Categories: Cities in Germany | Towns in Lower Saxony | Company towns | Germany-related stubs ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Production of the "Type 1" VW Beetle (German: "Käfer"; US: "Bug"; French: "Coccinelle"; Italian: "Maggiolino"; Mexico: "Vocho"; Brazil: "Fusca"; Spanish: "Escarabajo"; Dutch: "Kever"; Portuguese: "Carocha") increased dramatically over the years, the 1 millionth car coming off the assembly line in 1954. During the 1960s and early 1970s innovative advertising campaigns and a glowing reputation for reliability and sturdiness helped production figures to surpass the levels of the previous record holder, the Ford Model T, when Beetle No. 15,007,034 was produced on February 17, 1972; by 1973 total production was over 16 million, and by 2002 there had been over 21 million produced. Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... 1908 Ford Model T advertisement The Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and the Flivver) was an automobile produced by Henry Fords Ford Motor Company from 1908 through 1928. ... February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Faced with stiff competition from more modern designs—in particular economical Japanese autos in the US—sales began dropping off in the mid-1970s. There had been several unsuccessful attempts to replace the Beetle throughout the 1960s; but the Type 3, Type 4 (411) and the NSU-based K70 were all failures. Finally, production lines at Wolfsburg switched to the new water-cooled, front engined, front wheel drive Golf in 1974, a car unlike its predecessor in most significant ways. US,Us or us may stand for the United States of America us, the oblique case form of the English language pronoun we. ... The VW Type 3 was a small 2 door sedan produced by Volkswagen. ... The VW Type 4 was a medium sized 2 or 4 door sedan or 2 door station wagon built by Volkswagen. ... VW K70 Kombi (station wagon/estate) The Volkswagen K70 (pronounced ka siebzig) is a sedan automobile produced by both NSU and Volkswagen from 1969 to 1974. ... Front wheel drive is the most common form of engine/transmission layout used in modern automobiles, where the engine drives the front wheels. ... VW Golf Mk. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...

Beetle production continued in smaller numbers at other German factories until 1978, but mainstream production shifted to Brazil and Mexico; the last Beetle was produced in Mexico in mid-2003. The final batch of 3,000 Beetles (officially named the Sedán in Mexico) were sold as 2004 models and badged as the Última Edición, with whitewall tires, a host of previously-discontinued chrome trim, and choice of two special paint colors taken from the New Beetle. Production in Brazil ended in 1988, then re-started in 1993 and continued until 1996. Volkswagen sold Beetles in the United States until 1978 and in Europe until the mid-1980s. Events January January 1 - The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. ... The Federative Republic of Brazil (República Federativa do Brasil in Portuguese) is the largest and most populous country in South America, and fifth largest in the world. ... The United Mexican States or Mexico (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or México; regarding the use of the variant spelling Méjico, see section The name below) is a country located in North America, bordered to the north by the United States of America, to the southeast by Guatemala and Belize, to... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Events January January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil. ... The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... Events January January 1 - The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...

Independent importers continued to supply several major countries, including Germany, France, and the UK until the end of production in 2003. Devoted fans of the car even discovered a way to circumvent US safety regulations by placing new Mexican Beetles on the floorpans of earlier, US-registered cars. The end of production in Mexico can be blamed primarily on the Mexican government's decision to gradually outlaw the use of 2-door cars as taxi cabs (the Beetle's core market in latter years.) In addition, Volkswagen, now Germany's largest automaker, has been attempting to cultivate a more upscale, premium brand image, and the simple Beetle, with its $7000 base price, clashed with VW's new identity, seen in the Touareg and Phaeton luxury vehicles.

Like its competitors the Mini and the Citroën 2CV, the Beetle has been regarded as something of a "cult" car since its 1960s association with the hippie movement; and the obvious attributes of its unique and quirky design. Alternative meanings: mini (with lower-case m) is also colloquial for miniskirt and, less commonly, for miniature figure. ... 1960 2CV. Notice suicide doors The 2CV (deux chevaux - French, literally two horses, from the tax horsepower rating) was a popular French car made by Citroën. ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... Hippies (singular hippie or sometimes hippy) were members of the 1960s counterculture movement who adopted a communal or nomadic lifestyle, renounced corporate nationalism and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and/or Native American religious culture, and were otherwise at odds with traditional middle class Western values. ...

From 1968 to 1997 a white Beetle with racing numbers and stripes named "Herbie" played a starring role in The Love Bug series of Disney comedy films. A yellow Wunderkäfer, called DuDu, appeared in a series of German films for children. Also made famous as the Autobot Bumblebee/Gold Bug in cartoon The Transformers. 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Reef. ... The Love Bug (1968) was the first of a series of movies made by Walt Disney in the late 1960s that starred a white Volkswagen racing Beetle with a mind of its own named Herbie, along with his driver (Dean Jones) and drivers love interest (Michele Lee). ... Disney - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Comedy is the use of humour in the performing arts. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of the entertainment industry. ... The Autobots (also known as Cybertrons in Japan) are the heroes in the Transformers toyline and related spin-off comics and cartoons. ... Species see text A bumblebee in flight The bumblebee is a flying insect of the genus Bombus in the family Apidae. ... Various Transformers toys Transformers is the name of a line of toys produced by Hasbro from 1984 onwards, and also of a number of spin-offs based on the toys including a Marvel Comics series, an animated television series that began airing on 1984 (Transformers series) and a feature-length...

New Beetle

At the 1994 North American International Auto Show, Volkswagen unveiled the J Mays-penned "Concept 1", a concept car with futuristic styling deliberately reminiscent of the original Beetle's rounded shape. Strong public reaction convinced the company to move the car into production, and in 1998 Volkswagen launched the New Beetle, designed by Mays and Freeman Thomas at the company's California design studio. The New Beetle is related to the original only in name and appearance: under the hood, it is a modern car in every way, based on the Volkswagen A platform. In stark contrast to the original, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety gave the New Beetle among the best safety ratings in its class at the time of its launch. 2000 Volkswagen Beetle. ... 2000 Volkswagen Beetle. ... The North American International Auto Show (previously called the Detroit Auto Show) is an annual automobile show (or auto show) that occurs every year in Detroit, Michigan. ... J Mays (born October 15, 1954 in Maysville, Oklahoma) is currently the Vice President of Design and Chief Creative Officer at Ford Motor Company. ... Freeman Thomas is an automobile designer active in the 1990s and 2000s. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd) - Land 404,298 km² - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... The Volkswagen A platform is an automobile platform shared among the compact cars of Volkswagen Group. ...

Marketing campaigns have enhanced the continued goodwill towards the original, and helped the new model to inherit it. The Volkswagen New Beetle was Motor Trend's Import Car of the Year for 1999. The Volkswagen Beetle or Bug is a small family car, the best known car of Volkswagen, of Germany, and almost certainly the world. ... Motor Trend is one of the oldest automotive magazines still publishing. ... Car of the Year is a phrase usually considered to have been invented by Motor Trend magazine in the 1950s for their annual award for best automobile. ...

Phase Out of the Original Beetle

In 2002 total production of the VW Golf, at 22 million units, overtook that of the Beetle. However this measure includes all four distinct generations of Golf since 1974. Download high resolution version (1500x1072, 420 KB) Volkswagen Beetle at Bristol Car Show, The Downs, Bristol, England. ... Download high resolution version (1500x1072, 420 KB) Volkswagen Beetle at Bristol Car Show, The Downs, Bristol, England. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... VW Golf Mk. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...

By 2003 Beetle annual production had fallen to 30,000 from a peak of 1.3 million in 1971. On July 30, 2003, the final original VW Beetle (No. 21,529,464) was produced at Puebla, Puebla, Mexico, some 65 years since its public launch in Nazi Germany, and an unprecedented 58-year production run since 1945. VW announced this step in June, citing decreasing demand. The last car was immediately shipped off to the company's museum in Wolfsburg, Germany. In true Mexican fashion, a mariachi band serenaded the last car. 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Events January January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... July 30 is the 211th day (212th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 154 days remaining. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Events January January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil. ... The city of Puebla – known more formally as Heróica Puebla de Zaragoza or less formally as La Angelópolis or Puebla de los Ángeles – is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name, and the fourth largest city in Mexico. ... The United Mexican States or Mexico (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or México; regarding the use of the variant spelling Méjico, see section The name below) is a country located in North America, bordered to the north by the United States of America, to the southeast by Guatemala and Belize, to... Categories: Cities in Germany | Towns in Lower Saxony | Company towns | Germany-related stubs ... Mariachi is a type of musical group, originally from Mexico, consisting of at least two violins, two trumpets, one Spanish guitar, one vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar) and one guitarrón (a small-scaled acoustic bass), but sometimes featuring more than twenty musicians. ...

External link

Categories: VW vehicles | Beetles | Rear-engined vehicles | Rear wheel drive vehicles | Industrial design Volkswagen AG ( TYO: 7659) is a German corporation. ... cropped version of vwlogo. ... Volkswagen (VW) is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. ... Press photograph of the newly merged Audi NSU range, 1969. ... A white Seat 600 SEAT is one of the leading car makers in Spain. ... Škoda Auto listen? is the leading automobile manufacturer in the Czech Republic, now part of the Volkswagen Group (VAG). ... Bentley logo Bentley Motors Limited is a British based manufacturer of luxury automobiles and large sportscars. ... The Bugatti logo Bugatti is one of the most celebrated marques of automobile and the one of the most exclusive Italian yet also French car producers of all time. ... 2004 Lamborghini Gallardo 2004 Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster Automobili Lamborghini S.p. ... The Volkswagen Apollo was an automobile sold in Brazil during the late 1980s when Volkswagen and Ford Motor Company shared models in South America in a joint venture known as Autolatina. ... Categories: Automobile stubs | VW vehicles | Front wheel drive vehicles | Subcompact cars ... The VW Polo is compact car manufactured by Volkswagen, sold mainly in Europe. ... The Volkswagen Gol is a compact automobile produced by Volkswagen in Brazil, and is a design unique to Latin America. ... The VW Citi is a car produced by Volkswagen in South Africa. ... VW Golf Mk. ... The Volkswagen Jetta is essentially a sedan version of the Volkswagen Golf. ... The VW Fox is a compact car produced by Volkswagen in Brazil and Mexico. ... 1986 VW Scirocco 8v (MkII) The Volkswagen Scirocco was created in 1974 to replace the Karmann Ghia. ... The VW Corrado is a 2 door, 4 passenger compact sports car developed by Volkswagen but built by Karmann in Osnabruck, Germany. ... The Volkswagen TL was a 2-door sedan produced by Volkswagen in Brazil in the 1960s. ... The Volkswagen Touran is a mini-MPV class automobile based on a vertically stretched 5th generation VW Golf and sold in Europe. ... VW K70 Kombi (station wagon/estate) The Volkswagen K70 (pronounced ka siebzig) is a sedan automobile produced by both NSU and Volkswagen from 1969 to 1974. ... The Volkswagen Passat is a midsized car built by Volkswagen AG. It falls between the VW Golf/Jetta and VW Phaeton in the current VW production line-up. ... The Volkswagen Santana is a sedan version of the Volkswagen Passat, first introduced in 1981, and also known in the Americas as the Quantum (at least in Brazil, only the station wagon version was called Quantum). ... VW Sharan The VW Sharan is a Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV) or people carrier sold by Volkswagen in Europe, in a joint venture with Ford, which sells a version of the same model as the Ford Galaxy. ... Phaeton interior The Volkswagen Phaeton (pronounced fay-tun) is a large luxury sedan manufactured by Volkswagen. ... The Volkswagen Pointer was a family car sold by Volkswagen in South America, in the 1990s. ... The Volkswagen Santana is a sedan version of the Volkswagen Passat, first introduced in 1981, and also known in the Americas as the Quantum (at least in Brazil, only the station wagon version was called Quantum). ... The VW Touareg is an automobile manufactured by Volkswagen. ... The VW Caddy is a light pickup truck and van based on the VW Golf hatchback. ... The Eurovan was the first front-engined van of German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen and is the successor of the famous classic VW Type 2 van. ... The VW LT is a large panel van produced by Volkswagen. ... The VW Type 2 was the second automotive line introduced by German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen. ... The VW Type 3 was a small 2 door sedan produced by Volkswagen. ... The VW Type 4 was a medium sized 2 or 4 door sedan or 2 door station wagon built by Volkswagen. ... The Karmann Ghia is a two-seater sports car marketed by Volkswagen, designed by the Italian firm Ghia, and built by German coach builder Karmann. ... Kübelwagen is an abbreviation from German Kübelsitzwagen which literally means bucket seat car. It was a generic name for open-topped military utility cars fitted with bucket seats. ... The VW-Schwimmwagen was an amphibious vehicle used extensively by the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the Second World War. ... Categories: Automobile stubs | VW vehicles | Concept vehicles ...

Encyclopedia > VW Beetle

History

New Beetle

Phase Out of the Original Beetle

External link