Oldest Nameplates still in production part V: Volkswagen Beetle
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Few Mainstream cars have managed to create a legend as popular as the Volkswagen Beetle. The car is actually the only longest running car made on a single platform for the longest period of time. A total of 2500000 plus cars have already been sold since its inception.
The first idea
The car began its life on the drawing board as a small economy car for the masses. Commissioned by the historic leader of the Axis armies, Adolf Hitler himself, the car was planned in the early thirties. Even more notable fact was that the Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche himself. The initial models were lost to the world war and hence the work had to begin from scratch . Ferdinand Porsche decided to use the Porsche type 12 design as influence for this peoples car. A major requirement for the peoples car was to be able to cruise long distances over 100 km/hr on the autobahn seamlessly. A rarely known fact is the help of Daimler-Benz in building this car. The car was earlier named Type1 and then by four digit numbers like 1200, 1300, 1400, 1502 etc. The Beetle name came after the Germans started calling the car Kafer (Beetle in German.). Consequently the car became the Beetle worldwide.
The Beetle became the inspiration for many other small cars from Fiat and Morris motors at the time. But the Bettle turned out to be more reliable. The car also became a best seller in the US where People only bought well advertised products.
Apart from inspiring small rear engine rear wheel drive family cars like the Mini and Fiat 500, the Beetle was also an inspiration for another legendary car, the Beetle Type 2 mini bus. Also notable is the fact that the Beetle was built on the same platform and chassis for the longest time and is a record in itself.
Finally in 1994,Volkswagen engineers and designers decided to give in to the increasing trend of front wheel drive cars and the concept One was born which was made on the Golf platform . The second generation beetle was put on sale in 1998. The car was awarded as the most influential car of 20th century behind Ford Model T, the Mini and Citroen DS.
Ironically, the Beetle being a family car still always had two doors to save costs. While the basic design of the car has remained unchanged, the car has received 93000 design updates till 2012. The car was designed to be as simple as possible mechanically, so that there was less to go wrong.
Controversies
Like all conspiracy theories it is argued that Hitler stole the idea for the Volkswagen Beetle from Ganz's "May Bug," which he saw in 1933 at an auto show. These cars had some of features of the later Volkswagen Beetle, such as the tubular chassis, rear-mounted engine and independent wheel suspension with swing axles. While the Volkswagen Beetle was produced in its millions after World War Two, the name of Josef Ganz was largely forgotten.
The Austrian car designer Hans Ledwinka was a contemporary of Porsche working at the Czechoslovakian company Tatra. In 1931, Tatra built the V570 prototype, which had an air-cooled flat-twin engine mounted at the rear. The rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout was a challenge for effective air cooling, and during development of the much larger V8 engined Tatra T77 in 1933 Tatra registered numerous patents related to air flow into the rear engine compartment. It was these patents which led to the lawsuit with Volkswagen over the Beetle. Just before the start of the Second World War, Tatra had ten legal claims filed against VW for infringement of patents. Ferdinand Porsche was forced into paying for settlement but Adolf Hitler took care of thing during his occupation of Czechoslovakia. Tatra was forced to stop manufacturing cars and only concentrate of making trucks. The matter was reopened by the British and Americans after the world war victory and Volkswagen was made to pay tatra 3000000 Deutche Marks in 1961.
Super Beetle and decline
In 1971 the Beetle was beefed up with a better suspension. Officially named 1302 and 1303 the car had a longer bonnet but a tighter turning radius.Various other major changes included bigger windows and other technical changes. But with modern changes and stiffer competition, Japanese car makers started picking up pace. Honda,Toyota, Suzuki, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Mazda started building competitive small cars which were more reliable and fuel efficient while being cheaper to buy.
Second Generation
Looking at the glowing Success Volkswagen Beetle enjoyed over the years and in popular culture like movies and media, Volkswagen decided to build a newer generation based on its succesful A4 platform on which it built cars like Audi A3, VW Jetta and Golf. The car retained the looks of the original car but had a front wheel drive setup with a front engine.
The original concept was displayed in 1994 at the North American International Auto Show and put on sale in 1997. The newer car was much bigger than the original alongwith bigger engine options as it was based on a larger platform. The car continued production until 2010.
Third Generation
The second generation Volkswagen Beetle had to be phased out along with the production cease of the A4 platform. The third generation Beetle ebuted in 2011 on the A5 platform . The platform is again shared with Audi A4, VOlkswagen Golf and Volkswagen Scirocco. This third generation for the first time featured curves matching the latest trends while retaining the basic shape of the Volkswagen Beetle.
Ironically while the Beetle has again grown in size, the engine capacities have come down in keeping with the latest trends of smaller engines delivering better fuel efficiencies.
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