The History of Beetle

The world debut of the new generation, 2012 Beetle, took place at the Shanghai auto show on April 18th, 2011. 

Beetle: The Facts

• The model became widely known in its home country as the Käfer, German for "beetle", and the model ultimately took the same nickname in English.
• While the overall appearance of the Beetle changed little over its life span, it received over 78,000 incremental changes during its production.
• Beetle sales boomed in the 1960s, thanks to clever advertising campaigns, and the Beetle's reputation for reliability and sturdiness.
• By 1973, total production was over 16 million, and by 23 June 1992, over 21 million had been produced.
• As of 2009, the Beetle is arguably the world's best-selling car design.
• The first Volkswagen Beetle dealer in the UK was J.Gilder & Co. Ltd. in Sheffield, which began selling Volkswagens in 1953.  
• World Record mileage on a Beetle is 1,142,044 miles on a 1963 Beetle owned by Albert Klein of Pasadena California.
• The last two German-made Beetle shells now reside in VW's Milton-Keynes parts store, still protected in wax.

• The Beetle has made numerous appearances in Hollywood films, most notably (Disney's) The Love Bug comedy series from 1968 to 2005, starring as "Herbie", a pearl-white, fabric-sunroofed 1963 Beetle—racing number 53.
• In the plot of the 1973 Woody Allen film Sleeper, Allen's character was able to instantly start a Beetle which lay hidden and unused in a cave for 200 years, leading to the punchline "Wow, they really built these things, didn't they?".
• In the 1984 series The Transformers, key Autobot character Bumblebee transformed into a Beetle, as well as fellow Autobot Glyph and the Decepticon Bugbite.
• In Cars (2006), every bug or insect is represented by a VW Beetle.
• In Footloose (1984) Ren McCormick (Kevin Bacon) drives a Beetle.
• In Dazed and Confused (1993), a Beetle Cabrio and Beetle 1303s are featured.
• A yellow VW Beetle appears in the film Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird.

The Timeline

The Adverts

In true Volkswagen style, the Beetle adverts were tongue in cheek.  It would be remiss of us to not share our favourite Beetle Press ads of all time with you.