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Almost everyone has a story about a VW Beetle. Now these memories will forever be recorded in the story.
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From Hitler to Herbie – and hipsters to hipsters – the Volkswagen Beetle transcended generations.
Almost everyone has a story about a ladybug, a car that has made most people smile – and left others injured at "Punch Buggy" parties if the other person had ever seen them before. another before you.
In the end, though, even millennia could not keep the Love Bug alive.
The latest Volkswagen Beetle left the production line in Mexico this week, but had been in the resuscitation phase for nearly a decade.
The first generation of Beetle was produced for a record 65 years – from 1938 to 2003 – making it the oldest and most manufactured model in the world of automobiles.
With its characteristic dak-dak, you can often hear a ladybug long before you see it.
The simple design – a steel dashboard that was also part of the bodywork, to save space and reduce material costs – with its air-cooled engine at the rear, made it different from any other car on the road.
In Australia, where large poppies are cut, the Back-to-Basics Bug has become a symbol of fun and freedom. Few cars exuded the congratulations of the ladybug.
In the 1990s, cars became plastic and soulless, so Volkswagen came up with a plan to change that and, presumably, increase profits.
The modern Beetle – based intelligently on the fundamentals of a VW Golf sedan – was launched in 1997 with the advertising slogan "The engine is at the front, but its heart is in the right place".
There was even a plastic vase on the dashboard, a return to porcelain Blumenvase option introduced by US dealers from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The floral composition was perceived as a stroke of genius by the unconditional and a virulent marketing ploy by its detractors.
The modern Ladybug never intended to sell the same number of coins, but she was supposed to do better than she did.
Volkswagen has sold an average of 330,000 Beetles per year over its 65-year history. The modern version is sold at a rate below 77,000 per year over 22 years.
The world had changed and there was infinitely more choice for new car buyers. Instead, the modern ladybug has become a cynical marketing exercise.
It was virtually as cheap as making a Volkswagen Golf (only the shape of the bodywork had changed, the basics were the same) but sold at a much higher price.
In Australia, this was a starting price of around $ 36,000 when the modern Beetle went on sale in the early 2000s. At the time, a Golf sedan – its twin under the skin – cost 26,000 $.
Initially, enthusiastic buyers did not care. Modern Love Bugs have touched their hearts and opened their portfolios.
But fashion will not last. After an initial rise (sales were the strongest in Australia in the first two years), the modern Beetle fell in free fall as buyers hesitated over the premium.
The Modern Ladybird was extinguished from the Australian showrooms in 2016, but a handful of them appeared in the sales reports in 2017, while dealers were struggling to get rid of stocks.
For the fanatics, his passing was as painful to watch as an insect returned in a spasm after being sprayed with an insecticide.
Volkswagen has managed to sell 1.2 million examples of the first iteration of the modern ladybug in the 14 years between 1997 and 2011, but sales have slowed to less than half of that rate (530,000 ). 2011 to 2019.
In the meantime, the memories of the original Beetle will remain alive thanks to a healthy collection of examples of classic virgin models in Australia – and to a new fan base among the millennia that dream when life was simple, the direction in the Cars were heavy, and the brakes were a little wachés.
A new generation of buyers in their twenties – who was born at the death of the original Beetle – now seized cars deemed too expensive for hardcore collectors.
They take their beetles (or other classics) for memorial journeys on the weekends and travel by public transport during the week.
Now that the ladybug has gone forever, impeccable examples will likely begin to retain their value – even if they have reached an age where they can not quite restrain their fluids.
VW Beetle in numbers:
21.5 million: the number of original beetles manufactured from 1938 to 2003.
1.7 million: the number of modern beetles manufactured from 1997 to 2019.
9848: the number of new generation VW ladybugs sold in Australia from 2000 to 2017.
Mid-1950s: VW Beetles initially assembled as a kit in Australia.
1959 to 1968: VW Beetles is manufactured in Australia, in the suburbs of Melbourne, Clayton, on a site that will later become a Nissan factory and then a Holden Special Vehicles assembly facility.
1968 to 1976: The VW Beetles have been assembled as a kit in Australia.
$ 1942: the price of a new VW Beetle in Australia in 1960.
$ 36,790: the price of a new VW Beetle in Australia in 2000.
Where to go from here?
The Ladybug may be dead, but Volkswagen is about to revive one of its other classics, the Kombi. Modern versions of the Kombi van and the people-mover are expected to arrive in Australian showrooms in two or three years.
The only problem: the hippie-mobile of the future will only be available in electric vehicles.
MORE: news, reviews, comparisons and videos from Beetle
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