Anyone who has phoned up an insurance company to insure their Volkswagen Beetle may be blissfully unaware of how and when the Beetle was first thought of. And they may also have no idea which infamous leaders vision it was to have an affordable car. The VW Beetle Car was born in Germany and is produced by the company Volkswagen. Translated from German to English, Volkswagen simply means “People’s Car” The VW Beetle has outsold every sort of automobile that has ever been made. Its origins go back to the early 1930’s and its history grew as it continued to be produced. A Volkswagen Beetle called Herbie was a character that was featured in quite a few Disney motion pictures, starting with the 1968 feature film ‘The Love Bug’. Herbie had a mind of its own and was capable of driving itself, and was a serious contender in the racing competitions during the film. Before the 1930’s there had been quite a few attempts at selling simple cars that everyone could afford but none were successful. Almost all cars that were designed to be cheap enough for the average German to afford ended up costing more than the average worker earned in 12 months. Then along came Ferdinand Porsche who designed a prototype of the Beetle Car. It was basically a streamlined Sedan with an engine at the back so that the drive shaft could be shorter. The prototype was built by a motorbike producer called Zundapp and was test driven in 1932. It did not go into production because Zundapp decided it was financially better to keep making motorbikes as they were in still high demand.

Adolf Hitler had a vision of his fellow Germans being able to own a cheap car and also had plans to create a great network of roads to be called ‘autobahns’. Hitler invited Ferdinand Porsche to draw up a design for this people’s car, with the orders that the car had to be cheap, economical, fast, and have the capacity to accommodate two adults and three children. In January 1934, Ferdinand Porsche gave Adolf Hitler his proposal for the vehicle, and within six months work had begun. The German Auto Dealers Association funded some of the cost to help pay the bills. The car was designed to be as simple as possible, so that there was less that could go wrong. Much of the VW Beetle’s design was inspired by the advanced Tatra cars of Hans Ledwinka who sued VW, but the lawsuit had to be stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. However the matter was not forgotten and was in fact re-opened after the Second World War resulting in VW paying Tatra 3,000,000 DM (Deutsche Marks) in 1961. Porsche and Ledwinka knew each other personally, and were known to have exchanged ideas.

Volkswagens were first sold in the USA in 1949 and in its first year sold just two cars. When first on sale to the U.S. market, the VW was for a short period sold as a “Victory Wagon”. Volkswagen of America was formed in April 1955 and production of the Type 1 Volkswagen Beetle increased dramatically over the years and of course is still in production today.