The VW Beetle - the most popular car of the 20th century?

The story of the Volkswagen Beetle Before I tell you the story of the Volkswagen Beetle, i must apologise for any German phrases I butcher along the way! Back to the vehicle in hand, the story begins nearly 100 years ago in 1931 with a man you’ve definitely heard of: Ferdinand Porsche. He worked with Zundapp to develop the early makings of a vehicle which would appeal to the masses, it was the Porsche type 12 and was named in German ‘the car for everyone’. By 1932, development is going well, there are 4 protoypes if we include the one built by NSU - yes, that NSU - but at this time they were a motorcycle factory. I try to keep away from politics on here, but sadly at this point we do need to have some political references. Hitler, leader of the Nazi party, saw what the teams were doing and commissioned Porsche to make his own version of the people’s car. After deliberating over other names and working project names, It was simply named the ‘Volks wagen’ - peoples car - and the brief from Hitler was simple: the car had to seat two adults, two children and be capable of carrying the luggage and cruise at 62 mph or 100 km. Remember, this is the era of the Autobahn, the first car-only highway had opened the year prior in 1932 and Hitler accelerated the autobahn developments from 1933 onward. If you’re wondering why the name Volkswagen was picked, it was because the Nazi party had used it to brand what they saw as their developments, the Volksradio for example. Development and refinement of the design continues throughout the 1930s, with Hitler so determined it was to be a people’s car that he launched a savings card. You added stamps to the card until you reached 990 Reichsmark. To give you some perspective on how long this might’ve taken, the average wage was 32 Reichsmark a week. However, Porsche did admit to some inspiration in his clever devisement of the Beetle; with the Tatra team drawing boards and T97 both lending styling and engineering cues. Tatra were annoyed by this and might’ve got somewhere with their court case against Porsche in the first instance, but then what was known as Czechoslovakia is invaded. A later court case settled in the 1960s actually awarded Tatra 3 million Deutsch marks. Now back to the saving book for your VW, because surely you’re going to get one if you’ve saved up, right? Sadly wrong - the Beetles as we know them now were predominantly produced for those involved high up in the war effort but it wasn’t really worth having seeing as all the fuel was redirected to the war efforts. Now here’s where it gets exciting, because the war ends and the factory is up for grabs. First off it’s offered to Ford, who think it’s going to be the biggest waste of their time and then it gets offered to the UK. I know Austin got offered it and various other manufacturers but not a single one wanted to take the car on. This is where British Army Officer Major Ivan Hirst comes in, because he essentially takes the factory, the workers and the unexploded bomb he has to clear out and despite everything being against him, he makes nearly one thousand cars a month by end of 1946 which then means in 1947, he is ready to debut the car at Hannover fair. The car previously had very much been only avaialble to the high and mighty, so this was big stuff. Changes for 47/48 were minimal, after all, it was just about getting the cars out into the market. Politics again fed into the fortune of the car, as the Marshall plan launches in the late 40s, pouring millions into the economy to get Germany going again. This benefits the little VW Beetle and in july 1949 the Export model is launched This kickstarts a global phenomenon and quite a few changes later, we land in the 70s, the era of this car we’re testing today. By the time this car was sold, VW was the world’s largest vehicle exporter. This was achieved through state investment, shrewd marketing, a product which could work easily in many overseas markets and a cheap car which was easy to fix and repair. They were clever in a way other manufacturers maybe weren’t, they even made their own specially designed ships to export the cars! By February 1972, an important record was set: the Beetle now held the record for the most manufactured car of all time, previously held by Model T. You might be surprised to know, if you don’t know much about these cars, to know the last of the old shape rolled off the production line in Mexico in 2003. if there was ever title for a popular classic, this is a car that undeniably has a place as a strong contender.

Added 20 Sept 2026