You may recall the tragic story of Josef Ganz, the very influential German motor journalist and engineer who was one of the several people who were developing cars in Germany in the 1930s that would directly and heavily influence the design of the famous Volkswagen Beetle. Ganz was written out of history by the Nazis,…
Volkswagen, a company that has essentially stripped its most iconic model, the VW Beetle, of most of its identity over the last couple of decades, is throwing in the towel with a new Final Edition for the 2019 model year.
My knuckles are cut up. My back is sore. My fingernails are scrubbed. It’s been a while since I’ve wrenched on my car, and now I don’t want to stop.
I was gone most of last week because I was unable to work for medical reasons, as I was suffering from a prolonged, full-body freakout of joy caused by being surrounded by so many air-cooled Volkswagens that my limbic system over limbic’d or whatever it does. All those VWs were part of the Airhead Treffen, a 1700-mile…
Yesterday, we reported that Volkswagen was either toying with the idea of a new, rear-wheel-drive electric four door Volkswagen Beetle, or our emotions, or both. Interestingly, the most interesting part of that is the four-door aspect, because there has never been an official four-door Beetle. There’s been some…
As we wave goodbye to the second generation of the “new” Volkswagen Beetle, a car that never quite reached the astronomical sales of the original car, we’re already getting indications that VW may be planning a revolutionary new electrified model that would return to its rear-wheel drive roots.
As I’ve made abundantly clear, I’m very fond of Volkswagen Beetles, especially the old air-cooled ones. There are also a substantial number of much, much older, also air-cooled beetles in the world, and these have nothing to do with Volkswagen. Volkswagen seems to forget this every now and then, based on the times…
Dave’s unbreakable Volkswagen Bug was a political guerrilla weapon. The battle was with the local prosecutor who hated 1960s student demonstrations and subsequently charged students under the Joseph McCarthy-era Indiana State Anti-Subversion Act. I began college in the fall of 1963 and quickly fell in with like-minded…
As an unapologetic Volkswagen obsessive, I feel like I’ve seen almost every old, archival photo of the prehistory of the iconic Beetle, even the disturbing and difficult ones from the car’s birth under the Third Reich. Of course, I haven’t seen everything, and occasionally I’ll encounter a truly unexpected photo that…
Are you a television set owner/operator and uncertain as to what manner of audiovisual information you should play back through your device? If so, I have a suggestion: on April 30 at 10 PM, there’s going to be a show on the Discovery Channel that, improbably, has decided to feature me and my 1973 Volkswagen Beetle.…
Memminger is one of the best Volkswagen Beetle restoration companies out there. They’re somewhat unique in the vintage Beetle restoration world because they tend to focus on the generally less-loved Super Beetles, but the cars they produce are outstanding. This time they’ve taken things a bit further, re-imagining a …
If you’ve been paying attention to Volkswagen’s lineup of concept cars lately, this really isn’t too big a shock—in fact, we’ve been speculating this would happen since 2015—but now it’s official: Volkswagen will not be bringing back a new version of their modernized icon, the Beetle, next year. Don’t be too upset,…
It’s been about six years since old-school Volkswagen Beetle taxis were made illegal in Mexico City, it’s been about 15 years since the last air-cooled Beetle rolled off the line, and a staggering 80 years since the basic design of the car was set. These cars shouldn’t still be doing anything, by any conventional,…
Janis Zettel of Clearfield City, Utah was given a non-running ‘73 Volkswagen Super Beetle as a gift by her son. While neither her nor her son was that interested in getting the Beetle running, Zettel liked the car, which she named Lucy and painted to look like a ladybug. Deciding the car made her happier as lawn art,…
That picture right up there is the answer to a question I’ve wondered about for years and years: was there ever a blatant knockoff of the iconic Volkswagen Beetle? Sure, there were plenty of cars “inspired” by or evolved from the Beetle: Fiats 500 and 600, Subaru 360, Porsche 356, Chevrolet Corvair, and so on. But…
I know that the formula that usually works best for a Jason Drives episode is to cram myself into something tiny, obscure, ill-conceived, a bit dangerous, and very uncomfortable. I mean, who doesn’t want to see me struggle and hurt a little? This week is different. This week is the finale, so I’m treating myself. I’m…
Finally, after way, way, way too long, I replaced the shocks on my car. I would have done it sooner if I had known just how busted my old ones were and how much better the new ones already seem.
I return to you people from air-cooled Volkswagen Project Car Hell, only to find Hagerty’s video of a Beetle engine getting re-built. It looks so simple! It’s such a tiny engine! Everything fits together like Legos! HA! The camera lies. Either way, watching this engine get completely torn down and rebuilt is weirdly…
Raymond Loewy was an legendary industrial designer, one of the few who have had great successes in industrial design, graphic design and automotive design. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t occasionally phone in an effort, like this wonderfully half-assed redesign of the iconic Volkswagen Beetle.
The case could be made that the original Volkswagen Beetle is the most iconic car ever made. Its modern versions, well... not so much. But as part of its big diesel emissions cheating penance, Volkswagen is making a massive push into electric cars. And that could return the Beetle to its roots in an unexpected way.
