VW Squashes The Bug: 5 Fun Facts As Beetle Production Ends

The Beetle, an avatar of freedom and the ultimate hippie road trip car at its zenith — has been squashed. Volkswagen said in a heartbreaking-to-many announcement that it is ending production of the beloved “Bug” next year.

The German automaker introduced new iterations of the car beginning in 1997 after a nearly two-decade hiatus in the U.S. market. But in an SUV-dominated world, Beetles — first rolled out as the “People’s Car” in Hitler’s Germany — barely puttered along.

The bulbous Bug is exiting the new car market with two models, a snazzy convertible and a coupe, with starting prices of $26,295 and $23,045, respectively.

Volkswagen U.S. CEO Hinrich J. Woebcken left the Beetle's driver door open just a crack, but enough to give crushed "Beetlemania" fans a measure of hope.

“As we move to being a full-line, family-focused automaker in the U.S. and ramp up our electrification strategy with the MEB platform, there are no immediate plans to replace it," he said in a statement. "But as we have seen with the I.D. Buzz – which is the modern and practical interpretation of the legendary Bus – I would also say, ‘Never say never.’ "

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Woebcken said the Beetle’s exit after three generations, over nearly seven decades, “will evoke a host of emotions from the Beetle’s many devoted fans.”

In its heyday in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, Beetles were the car to have. And what serious Beetle aficionado from back in the day doesn’t have this memory? The Bug is stuck in the snow, so a few hardy fellows lift it out of the drift. The same fellows weren’t adverse to picking up a Bug and hiding it, either. Yes, that happened — quite a bit, actually. It was all OK and, well, kind of groovy, because tales of searching for hidden Beetles are among those that made its fans’ relationships with their cars one of the quirkiest love affairs in America’s romance with the automobile.

Tell Us: What's your favorite memory involving a Volkswagen Beetle road trip or escapade (please keep it PG-suitable, folks)?

Beetles didn’t offer particularly smooth rides, but neither did many of the cars back then. They were a fixture among broke college students, who scanned the classifieds looking for $100 deals on used Bugs — and there were a lot of them people switched from diminutive, cute little rides to faster cars with V-8 engines and four-barrel carburetors.

Here are five fun facts about the oh-so-fun Volkswagen Beetles:

How many people can you stuff into a Volkswagen? People have been cramming themselves into the tiny cars for decades. When the craze started in the 1960s, there wasn’t much purpose behind it. They stuffed themselves in phone booths, too, because they could. Things are different now. Twenty Asbury University students who piled into an old-style Beetle in 2010 to bring attention to human trafficking got a Guinness World Record, but records like this don’t tend to stand long. The more people that are stuffed into a VW Bug, the more people try to stuff more people in them.

Does it count if some of the people are on the roof. Volkswagen says the most people in a single Volkswagen Beetle is 57, a feat achieved by a group of climbers who used every inch of cabin space then piled them on the roof.

It really doesn’t matter. What to love here is not the number of people who can fit in a Beetle, but the whimsy in people trying.

About the “blumenvasen” — is it really about flower power? Some original Beetles sold in the U.S. came with a porcelain bud vase known as a “blumenvasen” that could be clipped to the dashboard, speaker grille or windshield. Its purpose has been the topic of much debate; many think it was a nod to the popularity of the Beetle in flower power era, but blumenvasens were offered on earlier models, too.

VW incorporated the nostalgic flair in its 1998 redesign, but it it was eliminated in 2011 to make the Beetle more male-friendly.

Did you know can get a birth certificate for your Beetle? That’s only if your Bug was manufactured before VW halted production in 1979. The Stiftung Auto Museum in Germany seized on the popularity of the classic Beetles and started offering the birth certificates, for a price, as a way for owners who consider their Bugs their babies to learn more about the cars. It’s a popular program, according to a blog on a Louisiana Volkswagen dealer’s website, and it may take months for the Beetle birth certificates to arrive.

Also, Volkswagen used to give savings bonds to people whose actual babies were born in their babies. The company doesn’t do that anymore, though.

And did you know that a giant troll is crushing a real Volkswagen in Seattle? Sculptor Steve Badanes led a team that created the Fremont Troll statue inspired by the folktale “Billy Goat’s Gruff.”

Eigteen feet tall, it is made of steel, wire and two tons of messy ferroconcrete. The VW Beetle the shiny metal-eyed troll is crushing was once a time capsule for Elvis memorabilia, but it was vandalized.

And Beetles not only inspire art, in some cases they are the art.

For an economy car, Beetles in general fetch a lot of money as gold-plated investment cars. “Herbie,” the 1963 model that starred in “The Love Bug” and a slew of sequels, went up for auction this spring and sold for $128,700 — a couple of grand and change more than it had three years earlier. “Herbie” has held on to the title as the world’s most valuable Beetle through two auctions.

Less famous Beetles also attract collectors. A 1956 Beetle Cabriolet sold for $72,800 at RM-Sotheby’s 2018 Amelia Island auction. And a highly original 1952 Beetle went for $62,345 at the auction house’s 2017 Paris sale.

Lead photo: AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File