AUTO HISTORY
Ford Motor Co. saw little future in “The People’s Car” after it inspected Germany’s VW plant at the end of the Second World War. Bad choice! The Beetle was about to become one of the world’s greatest auto success stories.
If one car could be called truly ubiquitous it would be the original German Volkswagen Beetle. Over almost 70 years (the last one was built in Mexico in July, 2003) it was assembled in four countries and sold in more than 140. It had created so much goodwill that when Volkswagen brought out a modernized version in 1998 it also proved very popular.
The Beetle’s history goes back to the 1930s. Shortly after becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Adolf Hitler, a car enthusiast and admirer of what Henry Ford had accomplished for America, commissioned Ferdinand Porsche's consulting firm to design an affordable car for average Germans. It was to be simple and economical – 40 miles per gallon – and durable enough to cruise continuously at 100 km/h (62 mph) on Germany's autobahn limited access highway system.
Although Hitler wanted it called the KdF-wagen (Kraft durch Freude, or Strength-Through-Joy), and early cars were called KdFs, it became universally known as the People's Car, or Volkswagen.
Porsche based the Volkswagen on a car its office had designed in 1932 for N.S.U. who had then abandoned the project at the prototype stage.
Its air-cooled, horizontally opposed (flat), four-cylinder engine was behind the rear axle and drove the rear wheels through a four-speed manual overdrive transmission. Suspension was fully independent via torsion bars and it had a simple, aerodynamic, beetle-shaped, twodoor sedan body.
Lacking a machine shop, Porsche staff built the original cars in Dr. Porsche's private garage at his home near Stuttgart. Three prototypes were ready for evaluation by the fall of 1936.
The cars passed their 50,000kilometre test, and although there were some problems, the design was considered basically sound.
In 1937 30 more Volkswagens were completed and driven a total of 2.4 million test kilometres. Another 30 were built for propaganda purposes.
When Germany's established motor manufacturers were unenthusiastic about producing Hitler people's car, he ordered construction of a huge state-funded factory near Schloss (castle) Wolfsburg in the northern German state of Lower Saxony. The cornerstone for the Volkswagenwerk was laid in May, 1938. It was completed in the spring of 1939 but by this time it was clearly apparent that Hitler had other objectives.
A few KdFs were produced before and during the Second World War but plant production was mostly dedicated to military needs, including the VW-based Jeep-like Kubelwagen ("bucket car") and an amphibious version called the Schwimmwagen.
Although car production was very limited it didn't stop Hitler's government from establishing a "layaway" plan in which Germans paid for new Volkswagens in advance by buying savings stamps. They didn't get their cars, prompting savers to launch an 11-year post-war lawsuit that was finally settled in 1961.
After the war the VW plant, about two-thirds destroyed by bombing, ended up in the allied zone. Several automakers, among them Ford and Rootes, were offered the operation. They saw the ugly, noisy little air cooled bug-shaped vehicle and a shabby war-damaged plant, but totally overlooked the Beetle's sound basic engineering. They said no thank you, which must rank as one of the major business blunders of all time.
The British-controlled factory was serving as a truck repair facility when German workers and displaced persons started trickling back. They began repairing the plant and setting up production machinery that had been hidden. They were encouraged by the British, overseen by Major Ivan Hirst of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Small scale VW production soon began: 1,785 in 1945; 10,020 in '46; and 8,987 in '47. They were used by Occupation Forces and the Post Office.
Rebuilding and carmaking accelerated in 1948 when an experienced German ex-Opel automotive engineer, Heinrich (Heinz) Nordoff, ace production man and highly motivated human dynamo, was placed in charge.
Nordhoff rallied the workforce, raised morale and pushed production from the less than 20,000 VWs built at the time he arrived to 500,000 by July, 1953, one million by August, 1955 and five million by December, 1961.
North American sales began in 1949 with two cars sold in the U.S. Volkswagen Canada was established in 1952 and began selling 1953 models.
Although the Beetle's shape remained unchanged there were constant mechanical improvements. Its inherent sturdiness and excellent parts and service network were backed up by clever self deprecating advertising by Doyle Dane Bernbach ("Think small"; "Did you ever wonder how the snowplough driver gets to work?"). The Volkswagen rose to the pinnacle of small car sales during the 1950s and ’60s.
The Volkswagen Beetle went on to become one of the most popular single models in automotive history. On Feb. 15, 1972, the 15,007,034th Beetle rolled off the assembly line, surpassing the legendary Ford Model T. When production ceased in Mexico in 2003 over 22 million had been built.