Classic Volkswagen Beetle - Kotse ng mga POGI

The Volkswagen Beetle, also known as the Volkswagen Type 1, was an economy car produced by the German automaker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003. It used an air-cooled rear engined rear wheel drive (RR layout). Over 21 million Beetles were produced in all.

In the 1950s, it was more comfortable and powerful than most European small cars; having been designed for sustained high speed on the Autobahn, and ultimately became the longest-running and most-produced automobile of a single design. It remained a top seller in the US, even as rear-wheel drive conventional subcompacts were refined, and eventually replaced by front-wheel drive models. Its success owed much to its extremely high build quality, and innovative, eye-catching advertising. The Beetle car was the benchmark for both generations of American compact cars such as the Chevrolet Corvair, and subcompact cars such as the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto. It was the German equivalent and counterpart to the Morris Minor, Renault 4CV, Citroen 2CV, Fiat 600, Saab 92, and Volvo PV444 immediate post-war European economy cars. The 1948 Citroen 2CV was the beginning of a switch to front wheel drives in the small car market by European manufacturers that happened in the 1960s and 1970s. Volkswagen was among the last to change with the Golf. The Beetle was 13 ft (4.0 m) long and the Mini was only 10 ft (3.0 m), but they had similar interior space [citation needed].

The car was originally known as Käfer, the German word for "beetle", from which the popular English nickname originates. It was not until August 1967 that the Volkswagen Corporation itself began using the name "Beetle" in marketing materials in the US. Previously, it had only been known as either the "Type 1" or as the VW 1100, 1200, 1300, 1500, or 1600, which had been the names under which the vehicle was marketed in Europe; the numbers denoted the vehicle's approximate engine size in cubic centimeters. In 1998, many years after the original model had been dropped from the lineup in most of the world (production continued in Mexico until discontinued, officially on 9 July 2003[4]), VW introduced the "New Beetle" (built on a Volkswagen Golf Mk4 platform), which bore a visual resemblance to the original.

In an international poll for the award of the world's most influential car of the twentieth century the Beetle came fourth after the Ford Model T, the Mini, and the Citroën DS.

source: Wikipedia