 |
| The 2019 Volkswagen Beetle Final Edition Cabrio. |
You probably saw the articles and videos earlier this year---“Volkswagen Beetle ends production after 70 years!” I hate to be a buzzkill, but I hate hype and inaccuracy more, so indulge me a moment, please.
The Volkswagen Beetle that started production 70 years ago ended production 40 years ago. There was a whole big farewell for that one, too---in 1979. And the triple-white Final Edition convertibles are still on the street in a whole lot of American towns.
Once that one went away, there wasn’t a Beetle for sale in America for 19 years---until the arrival of the 1998 New Beetle, which had zero in common with the original apart from a rounded body. The engine was in the front, not the back, it was water-cooled, not air-cooled---it was a rounded Beetle-inspired body on the chassis of a Jetta. But we’re not mourning the retirement of that car after a 21-year run, either. Its last year was 2011.
No, the model that we’re saying goodbye to is the current Volkswagen Beetle---which has been in production since 2012. But “Volkswagen Beetle ends production after 7 years” isn’t much of a headline, is it?
