This may be the most
storied and influential car in history with the possible exception of the Ford
Model T. And you may think new ones disappeared years ago. But until last
week, you’d have been wrong. The “real” Beetle remained in production in Volkswagen’s
Puebla, Puebla province Mexico from 1967 until Wednesday, July 10, 2019 when
the last one rolled off the line.
The original Beetle
could not meet US emission standards, so VW scrapped it in the US. But
Mexico? Who cares if all those fumes
kill a few hundred people a year and help melt the Polar ice?
No, the “original”
Beetle with an occasional update -- like a gas gauge and some other frivolous
stuff soldiered on. Wait. Maybe “soldiered on” is not exactly the best
way to describe something fathered by Hitler and birthed by the Porsche family.
Ok. It’s been around
since the late 1930s and for sale in the US since the mid-50s. People
bought them because they ran well, lasted well and showed that a mere defeat at
the hands of the allies didn’t do much harm to German engineering, although
today, that’s not what it once was, either.
You could replace the
engine in a Beetle in an hour or so, using only a pair of pliers and a
screwdriver. Not much plastic on those bodies. Just steel. And they still got decent gas
mileage.
Up until a few years
ago, you could buy a new Mexican VW for three or four thousand dollars.
It would cost you another three or four to retrofit US emissions
equipment. But you’d have a really good
new car for half the price you can buy new in this country.
We’re expecting a big
uptick in the prices of used Beetles here. Before the shutdown you could
get a decent one for about $1700, which was the price new in 1958. Some
listings show prices of up to $5,000 used.
That’s still not a bad deal.
And that would include
leather seats and a gas gauge, as opposed to the rare base model which had
neither. A gas gauge became standard sometime in the 1960s. So did a larger rear window. If you’re a wimp, you can add air conditioning
for about $2,000.
But why, you may ask,
would you want one of these in the first place?
Maybe
--It’s a nostalgia trip.
--Your left foot has
nothing to do and complains.
--It’s a chick magnet,
assuming the “chick” is of age to collect Social Security.
--It’s a cop magnet and
you love being pulled over so some kid in blue can gawk.
--You’ve always wanted
one.
VW has this habit of
shooting itself in the foot. When the Bug became a best seller they
started making a bunch of different models. One had a fancy body. One
looked like a bus but smaller. One
looked like a WWII Jeep and others looked like every other car. People
didn’t want something that looked like every other car and eventually, the
company pulled back.
Then they came out with
the New Beetle, a rolling junk heap with some of the cuteness of the original
but none of the sturdiness.
Later came the
commercials that showed how fast their low-emissions diesels could accelerate
and how fast they would go with low emissions. Slight problem, the engines
turned out to be major polluters and the built-in software to evade fume
detection were included in the base price.
So, Wiedersehen, old
freund. And Adiós, amigo.
I’m Wes Richards. My
opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Comments? Please send to
wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2019
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