Volkswagen’s been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, but today our resident Volkswagenophile Jason Torchinsky felt the need to break down the absurd claim that the Beetle was “a Nazi car.”
As Jason pointed out in the story, few people had clean hands in that era. Reader Phantom440 gets it, even if it came at the expense of his romantic life:
Mr. Torchinsky, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Loving Beetles since I was a kid, I’ve been scared, then dismissive, apologetic, then bored by the whole connection. Unfortunately it seems anyone who says this stuff isn’t the type to share Small Wonder or another “history of” with, or even my hackeneyed attempts at describing the creation of the car and company.
True story: On a blind date, after seeing my ‘69 Bug in the parking lot, the girl responded with “Isn’t that, like, a Nazi car?” She arrived in a Taurus and I pointed to it and said Henry Ford was a Nazi sympathizer, so is her car a “Nazi car?”... and the entire evening went downhill from there.
I probably don’t need to say there was not a second date.
She didn’t sound worth it anyway.
Congrats on your COTD win, Phantom440! Don’t let the haters get you down.
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.