END OF THE ROAD FOR VOLKSWAGEN'S BEETLE

JULY 10 2019 will go down in automotive history as the day production of the Volkswagen Beetle ended.

Selling over 23 million units since 1938 and instantly recognisable, the Volkswagen became a sign of Germany's post-war economic recovery and growing middle-class prosperity.

An early example of product globalisation the Volkswagen was sold and produced around the world including Australia with the Beetle initially assembled then manufactured at Clayton in Victoria between the mid-1950s and 1976, when Datsun took over the plant – until recently it also housed Holden Special Vehicles.

Conceived by Adolf Hitler the people's car was meant to bring vehicle ownership to the German people the way the Ford T-Model had done for the Americans. Hitler hired Ferdinand Porsche who created the rounded beetle shape car with flat near-vertical windscreen, two small rear windows and a rear mounted air-cooled engine.

The project was shelved with the outbreak of war and in a strange twist was resurrected under supervision of the British occupation authorities, who transferred the factory back to German ownership n 1949.

By 1955, the millionth Beetle – officially called the Type 1 – had rolled off the assembly line in Volkswagen's home town, Wolfsburg.

The USA became Volkswagen's biggest export market selling 563,522 cars in 1968, or 40 per cent of overall production. This was no doubt boosted by the humorous and unconventional advertising surrounding the Beetle.

Hollywood got in on the act and over the years the Beetle has appeared in dozens of films, the biggest at the box office being Herbie. Following that movie just about every car yard and street corner sprouted a white Volkswagen beetle with a red and blue stripe and number 53 on its bodywork.

In the early 60s Californian boat builder Bruce Meyers shortened the Volkswagen chassis and replaced the steel body with an open top fibreglass two-seater. It was called the Meyers Manx and was the original dune buggy. They were very fashionable in London in the early 70s.

Production of the Type 1 Beetle ended at Wolfsburg in 1974 to make way for new front-engine and front-drive models like the Golf. But it wasn't over for the Beetle with manufacturing switching to other factories including in Mexico, where the last Type 1 was built in 2003.

Meanwhile in 1998 a new retro-Beetle had emerged, based on a Golf platform and with the drive and engine in the opposite end to the original, but with several styling cues to the old car. In 2012, the design was given its last makeover and now its amazing journey has come to an end.

The last of 5961 Final Edition Beetles is headed for a museum after ceremonies at the Puebla, Mexico, plant on July 10 to mark the end of an icon.