Beetle-mania... how Ewan got hooked on the VW classic as a teenager
AS Obi-Wan Kenobi, he soared through the galaxy in a fleet of spaceships. But it seems Ewan McGregor has always been far happier in a more down-to-Earth mode of transport.
The Star Wars actor has revealed how he scraped together enough money to buy a second-hand Volkswagen Beetle while working as a kitchen hand in Perthshire.
It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair – and now the Hollywood A-lister has spoken of his passion for the cult car which was immortalised as Herbie in the Disney films.
While dreaming of becoming a film star, the 17-year-old splashed out £200 on his first car; a green VW he used to woo his first girlfriend.
But the Crieff-born celebrity has now spent considerably more amassing a fleet of the iconic vehicles at his California home.
The father of four spoke of his obsession with Beetles for new documentary The Bug: Life and Times of the People’s Car.
The 43-year-old revealed his teenage passion remained stronger than ever, saying: ‘There’s something about being in this little car that is one of my favourite places in the world – it is. It has a lot to do with not growing up. Somewhere in me is still that 17-year-old who got his first car and never got over it.’
Of those days, he added: ‘I worked from the age of 14 as a dishwasher. By the time I was 17, I’d bought a second-hand VW Beetle. By the same age my daughter Clara was going to a school with rich West LA kids and some of her friends were coming in new Audi A7s and new Mercedes as starter cars.’
As a teenage drama student in Fife, McGregor once brought an abandoned puppy home in his green VW Beetle. Now he often drives around LA with his pet dog Sid, a poodle-terrier cross. As well as a pale blue restored Beetle, with matching furry dice hanging from the mirror, McGregor has a battered VW van for bringing home the Christmas tree and a split-screen original camper for holidays. He has even joked: ‘I’d like to be buried in a VW.’