The Amazing Story of the Volkswagen Beetle – The end of every destination also marks a fresh start

From the beginning of the Volkswagen Beetle to today.A truth that affects all living and non-living things in this universe is that everything has a beginning and an end. After the year 2019, which ended a few days ago, we stepped into the new year 2020, making it clear to us that the end and the beginning are a world dharma that does not stop. However, this is our first post of the new year, wishing that your wishes come true in this new year.

Needless to say, when something begins, something ends is a common thing in the automotive world as well. The Volkswagen (USA) company announced a very emotional farewell animated video called “The Last Mile – Beetle” announcing that the Volkswagen Beetle (also known as the turtle car), which has a history of over 70 years, has ended all production in 2019. (the company that manufactured the last car) had released it online on 31st of December 2019.

The video was able to show how a young man goes through all the stages of his life from his childhood to youth, middle age and old age with the cute “Beetle” with him. At the same time, there is no doubt that most of the people who loved this cute “Beetle” are very sentimental.

Even so, it was in 2018 that Volkswagen announced that it would say goodbye to the “Beetle” altogether. Later, in July 2019, the final Beetles, the “Final Wolfsburg Edition SE” and “SEL” cars were released to the market, but many people knew that production was completely finished by watching the above video.

Even though the production of the last fuel-burning car has ended after 70 years, the company announced that an electric-powered Volkswagen will be released in the coming year. However, there are many reasons why this small car that has been discontinued has attracted so many people over the years, so we think it is more appropriate to reflect on the history of this car.

Germany’s Volkswagen, the manufacturer of the Beetle, is currently the second largest car manufacturer in the world, second only to Toyota. From 1938 to today, more than 23 million units of the Beetle have been sold worldwide, and the reasons for its spread to more than 91 countries can be cited as being the least expensive car, having a large amount of space inside and reducing maintenance costs.

Mr. Ferdinand Porsche is credited with the first production of the Beetle, which is known as the people’s car. After Hitler became the chancellor of Germany, apart from Germany being the ruling state of the world, there were many other dreams, one of them was to make cars the leading state in the world. At that time, his aim was to produce a car that could challenge the British Mini Cooper and the world’s best-selling Ford Model T at that time.

He used many strategies to achieve the frantic goal of making Germany the most powerful country in the world by building highways and infrastructure in his country. First, gaining the trust of the people of his country was also a part of his initial plans and he had drawn plans to produce a car that would be affordable for the people and provide this car to the people with easy payment methods.

Accordingly, he pointed out some of the mandatory features that this brand new car should have and they are respectively as follows. The first thing was that he could easily pass the 100 km/h mark in the traffic on the latest highways, that 7 liters of fuel could travel at least 100 km, that it could be easily repaired at any time, and that 4 or 5 people could travel in the car. and finally the fact that it can be started without difficulty in any winter (since many Germans have to park outside due to lack of garages).

Ferdinand Porsche, a German engineer, came forward to accept the challenge of producing a car that fulfills these requirements, and in 1932, he produced and presented a car called Type 12 for this purpose. The shape of this car was made in the shape of a beetle and a different type of car was made with an air powered Boxer type engine.

At the same time, Hitler, who was obsessed with possessing the most powerful state in Europe, invaded Czechoslovakia and took possession of the Tatra company by force, so no one was able to file a lawsuit against this vehicle.

After that, Volkswagen Type 1 car was introduced as the latest edition and that car was initially used for the use of high-ranking officers of the Nazi army. In the meantime, Germany was involved in a world war with allies including Britain and America, and Beetles were used only for military purposes during that period.

In this way, Beetle cars were not produced for the people during the war period for many years, and again in the late 1944, Germany was being conquered by the Allied forces and Hitler, who crushed his dreams, committed suicide in an underground Nazi camp with his girlfriend, Eva Braun. The Volkswagen company, founded in the city of Wolfsburg, was also heavily damaged by the Allied bombings.

After the British took over Germany, the company was auctioned off with the rest of the cars, they later reorganized the company and started producing “Beetles” again, successfully producing over 10,000 cars.

At the same time, the American market was disrupted for the Volkswagen company and this small Beetle was invaded in the American market instead of many larger cars with the least fuel efficiency and by the year 1949, this car was on its way to a very high success.

Due to the increased fuel efficiency, reduced maintenance costs, lack of complex engine parts, the ability to easily accommodate several people and the ability to drive continuously for long distances, the Beetle became the best-selling car of the time and was sold worldwide.

Around the year 1952, subcultures (hippie culture) were born around the Beetle and the Beetle became a very popular car among the young people who rocked around pop music. At the same time, the Beetle is also used in movies like “Love Bug” and “Herbie” and it is the most popular around the world, selling more than 15 million cars.

The popularity of the Beetle, which was a popular car from 1952 to the early 1990s, gradually decreased with the arrival of Japanese cars in the market. The appeal of the masses was slowly fleeing the Beetle due to the fact that the original Beetle was not adapted to safety, latest accessories and rapid modernization.

The Beetle, which has been produced on the same platform for many years, got a new look in 1998 with the introduction of the New Beetle. Because it was not the cheapest car as before and the car market was moving to larger cars, the market for the Beetle was decreasing in many countries including North America.

However, the demand for the old Beetle in countries including South America, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa continued after the year 2000, and therefore the Volkswagen company started car assembly factories in those countries. The car that arrived in the year 1998 was not very successful around the world as the market was mostly created for SUVs and in the year 2019 the company decided to officially stop the production of all vehicles bearing the Beetle name.

However, it must be said that after 70 years, the people’s car is retiring forever, leaving many different memories in many people.

In the end, the people’s car, which was the only dream come true of Adolf Hitler, who was known as the worst mass murderer responsible for the lives of millions of people in the world, starts a journey of no return, being remembered as the only good deed among the thousands of bad deeds done by him.