Volkswagen Beetle

Perhaps counterintuitively, omnipresence made the Beetle one of the most collectable cars in the world. In Germany, it symbolised an embattled firm that defeated the odds to spring up from near-extinction after a devastating war. In the US, it illustrated the growing popularity of small, fuel-efficient imports in the 1960s and 1970s. In Mexico, it’s remembered as a taxi. It continues to turn heads today, and its minibus and campervan developments have a cult all of their own.