AUTOMOTIVE
Resurgence of VW Bug was crowd-pleaser at 1998 auto show
As I walked into the Colorado Convention Center 25 years ago for the start of the 1998 Denver Auto Show, it was déjà vu for me.
For the second successive year, the biggest crowds were surrounding the smallest car there – the 1998 New Beetle from Volkswagen. The previous year it was shown as a concept, and the showgoers responded enthusiastically.
As I drove the New Beetle a couple weeks after the ’98 show, I couldn’t remember a car or truck that drew anywhere near the attention accorded the
Bug. Not the bright red SL500 convertible, nor the NSX; not even the Marathon Electric. When driven, the bright blue Beetle brought smiles and waves from fellow motorists and turned heads of people along the streets. When parked, it was the center of numerous “walkarounds.” The attention came from all ages – kids, housewives, retirees.
It seemed to be an emotional thing and created a healthy dose of fun in the automotive world. The U.S. had been 20 years without a Beetle sale.
The post-worldwar II boom was underway in 1949 when two Volkswagen Beetles, priced at $800 each, were shipped to the U.S. from the Netherlands.
The odd-looking, slow, noisy little German-built Bug soon caught the fancy of Americans, and almost 5 million were sold in this country in the ‘50s, ‘60s and‘70s. Beetle prices in the mid-1950s were around $1,500 and by the mid-1970s had risen to $3,599. Sales of the original Beetle in the U.S. ended in 1978. The resurgence launched in 1998 with the New Beetle, priced at $17,580, carried Volkswagen into the 21st century. The revived New
Beetle was only an inch or two longer than the original at 160 inches, though the new one had curb weight of 2,700 pounds, compared with only 1,600 for the original.
The nostalgia began to fade and 20 years after its return, the end was declared again for the Beetle. As it closed a door on the Beetle in early 2019, price had reached $23,980. Another door soon opened for the arrival of VW’S first electric automobile, the ID.4.
Electrics will be a main focus for the upcoming 2023 Denver
Auto Show at the Colorado Convention Center April 12-16. Beyond the several hundred new car and truck models, significant expansion of the program is planned, according to a spokesperson for the Colorado Automobile Dealers
Association, the planner for the show. These will include seminars and lectures from leading auto industry experts, personal mobility test drives, hands-on demonstrations of latest technologies and a pet-friendly atmosphere.