Beetle instead of Lambo
Jim Douglas loves fast cars. What would best suit the racing driver from San Francisco would be a really quick Lamborghini. But in reality he finds himself stuck with a crappy little imported sedan: the Beetle dogged Jim’s every step when he visited to luxury car dealership to find the sports car of his dreams. In the end Jim had no choice but to buy the Beetle but soon discovered that he had got more than he bargained for. This was a Beetle with a mind and personality of its own! ‘Herbie’… as he was christened by Jim’s mechanic and best buddy Teddy… proved to have racing talent, leaving Ferraris and Corvettes biting the Volkswagen’s dust and bringing the previously unsuccessful racer Jim Douglas one victory after another.
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- The Herbie movies were produced by Walt Disney Studios. This means that the car is not only cute but has personality and also wondrous abilities.
Anthropomorphic automobile
In spite of Herbie’s hypersensitivity and prissiness… out of jealousy he destroyed a Lamborghini and in despair threatened to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge… the Beetle and Jim remained a close-knit team. At the end they triumphed at the El Dorado race with Jim’s girlfriend Carole and Teddy the mechanic on board as they crossed the finishing line. The success of ‘The Love Bug’ in 1968 resulted in a good number of sequels, the most recent being ‘Herbie: Fully Loaded’ with Lindsay Lohan in the main supporting role.
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- To be precise, the original Herbie was a pearl-white Volkswagen export model built in 1963. The only touch of refinement was a sun roof.
Modest luxury
To be precise, the original Herbie was a pearl-white Volkswagen export model built in 1963. The only touch of refinement was a sun roof. There was little that could be deemed luxurious about the export models of the era, but then again many of the automobiles made by American manufacturers were also very basic. For the American market the Beetle had to be given an additional safety bar above the front fender, but this actually suited the car’s appearance well.
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- The Beetle found its own special niche in America. It was not a fast car nor was it elegant, it was all else than luxurious and among the giant American highway cruisers it looked like a bug in the Midst of a herd of buffaloes.
A bug among the buffaloes
In the sixties imported autos were no longer a novelty on the roads of the United States, and certainly not on the streets of San Francisco, where the intellectuals and outsiders gladly drove unusual autos to set them apart from the establishment. But nevertheless the role assumed by the Beetle was very special. It was not a fast car nor was it elegant, it was all else than luxurious and among the giant American highway cruisers it looked like a bug in the midst of a herd of buffaloes. With just 34 horsepower top performance meant tucking into the wind-shadow of a more powerful car. Back in the sixties the car’s economy… fuel consumption of 8.5 litres per hundred driven at a time when petrol was eight times cheaper than it is today… was not a selling point.
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- The world record attempts to pack as many people as possible into a Beetle contributed to the car’s popularity and youthful image.
From ‘Bug’ to ‘Beetle’
The nickname ‘Bug’ was never one with positive connotations although later ‘Beetle’ was a bit less off-putting. In the United States rear-engined automobiles were far from the embodiment of cool, after all in the early sixties Chevrolet had been obliged to give up on their rear-engined Corvair range. The American car makers steered well clear of quirky small cars, the Nash Rambler being the exception that proved the rule.
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- The success of ‘The Love Bug’ in 1968 resulted in a good number of sequels, the most recent being ‘Herbie: Fully Loaded’ with Lindsay Lohan in the main supporting role.
Sympathetic underdog
The original title of the first movie to feature Herbie was ‘The Love Bug’ and the title hints at the strategy adopted: A cuddly car, a sympathetic underdog but with hidden talents. It is said that the producer of the first Herbie film when seeking the right four-wheeled star let the opinion of the general public determine the casting. On a parking lot he assembled a variety of unusual automobile models to see how passers-by might react to their appearance. Only the Beetle had such appeal that people actually caressed the bonnet of the car.
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- The Beetle parade at the Volkswagen museum. The white car is the export version for the United States, distinguished with the extra safety bar above the fender.
Sales boosted by the movies
Even in the 1950s the Beetle was a huge export success and in 1953 was on sale in 83 nations. “The export of the Beetle to the began in 1950 with a shipment of 328 vehicles”, recalls Volkswagen’s historian Dr, Manfred Grieger. At the end of the day almost five million Beetles found their way across the Atlantic. After the export model of the basic sedan and convertible there followed the models designated Type-1300, Type-1302 and Type-1303. By 1958 Volkswagen was the biggest importer to the States and in the sixties ‘Beetlemania’ exploded, well supported by the movies in which Herbie was the lovable star. Even in 1973 there were over 370 thousand Beetles purchased by Americans.
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- The New Beetle was unable to replicate the commercial success of its forerunner. Volkswagen have high hopes that the successor model will do much better.
Will the new Beetle be a success?
It could be said that in the Beetle remained a ‘one hit wonder’. Neither the New Beetle nor Volkswagen’s Golf models were able to replicate the success of the original. Now the New Beetle has been retired and its successor in revving up at the starting line, intent on making its mark once again in the auto market. The spirit if Herbie is still out there.
