The world's most popular car, Volkswagen-or "the People's Car"-has earned its place in history. The VW Beetle chronicles the development and rise to worldwide popularity of the famed "punch-buggy," invented in Germany in the 1930s. This peculiar history includes the makings of all models, engines, and body styles through 1967-and the key people responsible for its development.

At the Berlin Auto Show in 1938, Adolf Hitler presented the prototype for a small, oddly shaped, inexpensive family car that all good Aryans could enjoy. Decades later, that automobile—the Volkswagen Beetle—was one of the most beloved in the world. Bernhard Rieger examines culture and technology, politics and economics, and industrial design and advertising genius to reveal how a car commissioned by Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche became an exceptional global commodity on a par with Coca-Cola. Beyond its quality and low cost, the Beetle’s success hinged on its uncanny ability to capture the imaginations of people across nations and cultures. In West Germany, it came to stand for the postwar “economic miracle” and helped propel Europe into the age of mass motorization. In the United States, it was embraced in the suburbs, and then prized by the hippie counterculture as an antidote to suburban conformity. As its popularity waned in the First World, the Beetle crawled across Mexico and Latin America, where it symbolized a sturdy toughness necessary to thrive amid economic instability. Drawing from a wealth of sources in multiple languages, The People’s Car presents an international cast of characters—executives and engineers, journalists and advertisers, assembly line workers and car collectors, and everyday drivers—who made the Beetle into a global icon. The Beetle’s improbable story as a failed prestige project of the Third Reich which became a world-renowned brand illuminates the multiple origins, creative adaptations, and persisting inequalities that characterized twentieth-century globalization.

The definitive illustrated history of a true world beater. Discover the full story of the amazing VW Beetle--from pre-war KdF-Wagen to today's New Beetle. The book features a color technical appendix illustrating chronologically the major design modifications made during the Beetle's lifetime. Full-color studio photography of 26 milestone models.

Surveys the history of the car known as the Volkswagen Beetle, describing how its popularity endured despite the fact that it was not sold in the United States between 1975 and 1998.

The Volkswagen Beetle is the most successful car in the history of the automobile and over twenty million examples have been built. Conceived by Adolf Hitler in the spirit of the Model T Ford and designed by Ferdinand Porsche in the 1930s, the Beetle did not enter series production until 1945, after the ending of the Second World War. Its familiar but unconventional lines have since become recognisable throughout the world and, incredibly, it is still being built at VW's Mexican factory. This edition brings the story up to date and charts the arrival and evolution of the New Beetle, visually inspired by the original, which appeared in 1998. About the author Jonathan Wood is a founder member of the staff of Classic Cars, the magazine which gave its name to the movement. He is the author of some 35 books, which include an acclaimed history of the Volkswagen Beetle. Other titles for Shire by this author are: The Bean Austin Seven The Citroen The Bullnose Morris Classic Cars The Model T Ford The Rolls-Royce

Traces the history, development, and design of the Volkswagen Beetle starting with its origins in Nazi Germany, to its appeal among college students in the 1960s, and its nostalgic but modern version introduced in 1998.