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Hola! Old VW Beetle gets one last run
Today was going to be the end for old-style Beetle. Sort of. A few more special ones will be made.
July 30, 2003: 10:28 AM EDT

New York (CNN/Money) - Today, Volkswagen's plant in Mexico -- the only one in the world that still makes the old-style Beetle -- finishes one last retro edition of the plucky bug before bringing down the curtain on nearly 70 years of history. The last old-style Beetle was destined for Volkswagen's museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.

VW Ultima Edicion  
VW Ultima Edicion

The last few were special, dubbed the "Ultima Edicion." That's Spanish for "Final Edition." Basically, they were the old Beetle, only a bit fancier and the Mexican plant made just 3,000 of them. They were made in the colors Aquarius Blue and Harvest Moon beige and sported chrome trim and mirrors, body-colored rims and whitewall tires.

The Ultima Edicion will cost 84,000 Mexican pesos -- about $8,000 -- compared to 68,000 pesos for the regular version that stopped production today, or about $6,500.

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From Iceland to Malaysia, the original Beetle has attracted devoted fans like no other car. A redesigned, sleeker version called the New Beetle was launched in 1998, but at a price of $20,000 to $25,000 it is no longer a car for anyone.

For the 300 Mexicans who work on the Beetle production line at the plant in the central Mexican state of Puebla, it will be like parting with a member of the family. The factory will continue producing the New Beetle.

"It's a jewel for me. The little bug has given my family prosperity," said Armando Pasillas, 60, who has worked for 37 years on the Beetle, which has been made in Mexico since 1964.

"I like seeing them in the street because I know they have all passed through my hands," he said. "I've left part of my life here," he added.

In 1996, Mexico became the last country to produce the old Beetle and since 1998 the car has been sold only there. The Volkswagen plant in Puebla also is the only one worldwide to produce the New Beetle, but they are mainly for export.

In Mexico City, the bug, or "vocho" as it is known locally, is a stalwart. Painted white and green, it is the standard model used by taxi drivers to crawl through heavy traffic. A decision by Mexico City's local government to give out future permits only to taxis with four doors helped to seal the two-door bug's fate.

Dark beginnings

The car that became the VW Beetle originally was conceived by Hitler while he was imprisoned in 1924 after an attempted coup. He conceived of an inexpensive car that typical German families could buy. They could be driven along the sweeping highways that Hitler wanted to build across Germany.

In 1933, through a combination of backroom politics and murder, Hitler seized power in Germany. The following year, he gave the task of designing the car to Ferdinand Porsche.

By 1938, designs were completed, a factory site selected and Hitler announced the car's name: The KdF-Wagen. KdF stood for "Kraft durch Freude" or "strength through joy". The name never became widely used by the German public, though, said James Flammang, author of the book "Volkswagen: Beetles, Buses and Beyond." It was more commonly called the "Volkswagen," or "people's car."

As it turned out, though, no ordinary Germans ever got a Volkswagen while the Nazis were in power. By the outbreak of war in 1939, only about 630 cars had been built. Almost all of them went to German military officers and to Hitler himself.

Kommandeurwagen  
World War II Kommandeurwagen

No Beetles, as they were later called, were built during the war. The car was used as the basis of various military vehicles, though. Among them were the amphibious Schwimmwagen, the jeep-like Kubelwagen and the Kommandeurwagen which looked like a fat-tired Beetle 4x4.

The mechanical and electrical guts of some of those Volkswagen-based military vehicles were used to build the early Porsche 356 sports cars -- ancestors of the modern Porsche 911 -- said Chris Barber, author of the book "The Birth of the Beetle."

After World War II, under the jurisdiction of the British Military, production of the car, now named the Volkswagen, was restarted. By 1949 the car was being exported and two convertible versions, a 2-seater and a 4-seater, were available. Today, the 2-seater, made by a company called Hebmueller, is a valuable collectors' car.

Hebmeuller convertible  
Hebmeuller convertible

The chubby, curvy little car took off, quickly becoming a symbol of the German economic miracle. As its popularity spread, the Beetle became the car of choice of the rebellious post-war generation in the United States and Europe, for whom it represented freedom from the tight social restrictions of the time.

By 1955 1 million Volkswagens had been produced. A VW sedan -- the name "Beetle" didn't become official until the late 1960s -- cost about $1,500, according to the Website Nadaguides.com. Subtle changes appeared in the car over time, including changes to the rear window and increases in engine size. VW introduced the slightly longer Super Beetle -- boasting more in the front "trunk" -- in 1971.

The last hard-top old Beetle was sold in the U.S. in 1977, costing about $3,700. That was a little more than the competing Ford Pinto. The last convertible was offered for sale in 1980 for about $6,500.

By that time, demand had ebbed in the face of more technologically advanced small cars. Also, the Beetle's air-cooled engine couldn't meet stringent U.S. air quality regulations, Flammang said.  Top of page

-- Reuters contributed to this story.



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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.