As I was preparing a few Insta posts, I came across these photos of VW Beetles. Somehow not a car I would ever have warmed to. It was built for far too long and somehow testifies to the manufacturer’s ignorance of progress. To offer an actual pre-war design in the 8o’s is something you have to dare to do. In 2003, it was only taken out of production in Mexico because it no longer met the emissions regulations. Not because the manufacturer considered the car outdated. Comparable to the Sachsenring Trabant 601, whose production only ended because the state in which the main customers lived was dissolved.

I am always amazed at how little the car has evolved on its own. Safety, whether passive or active, has always been a very, very low priority. And in my view, the special editions are more evidence of the eccentric sense of humor of the producers from Fallersleben. Painting a staid 1303 S yellow and black and then disguising it as a sports car under the name “yellow and black racer” is either very well understood marketing or completely ignorant. The GSR even became a topic of discussion in the Bundestag (German parliament) as to how the state-owned company could entice citizens to speed. At least in Bonn they were serious…

My first drive in a VW Beetle almost ended in a garage door at 50 km/h. The brakes responded so late that, as a young driver, I assumed they would never respond… and pulled the handbrake, using a garage driveway as a run-off zone. The car stopped and the owner looked at me irritated from the right. He knew nothing else and found it very difficult to understand my irritation. I had now been warned and was able to continue the journey without further incident after engaging reverse gear. But also without any fun. I only had fun in the 1302, which was parked in my friend Florens N.’s garden. When it started to rain at the barbecue in the evening, we liked to retreat into the car and down a bottle or two of Pilsner…

I’m sure there are a few more pictures of the KdF car VW Beetle slumbering on my servers, but since I’ve probably just written myself out of any chance of ever working for Volkswagen, I don’t even know if I should bother looking them up.