I caught the bug... with Herbie’s help

THE lights dimmed in the Adelphi cinema in Dún Laoghaire, the curtains parted, the screen flickered – and I fell in love. Not the way you might think, because this was 1970 and I was only six or seven, and real romantic thoughts were far in my future. No, that afternoon, in the tuppenny seats, or whatever they cost at the time, I fell in love with a Volkswagen Beetle called Herbie, the star of a Disney movie called The Love Bug.

It was a massive hit – when its $51million takings in North America alone are adjusted for inflation, it actually banked the equivalent of $335million in today’s dollars. That’s as much On the Road as many superhero movies make today.

The Beetle was known as the Bug in the States, the Coccinelle in France, the Maggiolino in Italy and the Käfer in its native Germany, not to mention a couple of dozen local translations for beetles and other insects and, pretty much everywhere, it was loved as a starter car.

With the support of Hitler, who demanded production of an affordable mass-market vehicle – Volkswagen literally means the people’s car – Ferdinand Porsche developed the prototype for the Beetle in the Thirties. Just 210 were built before the start of the Second World War, and production finally ramped up in 1946, with 1,000 a month delivered to the British Army. By 1955, a million had been come off the production line.

Here, an enterprising businessman called Stephen O’Flaherty saw the potential and imported Beetles from 1950 in kit form, with assembly taking place on the site of what now is Ballsbridge Motors right up to 1977. The car initially sold for £465 (€17,695 in today’s money), and production rose from 46 units in 1950 to a high point of 5,288 in 1972. Worldwide, production of the original ended in Puebla, Mexico, in 2013. Over 23million had been built.

Two new Beetles were developed, with varying levels of success, and production now has halted for good. VW Ireland still has a few of the latest model in stock, with prices starting at €25,350 – so if you too fell in love with this iconic car, this is your last chance to realise your ambition to let Herbie ride again.