codeborg: you must be ebeth's twin ! a couple of times around the block in my brother's beetle and ebeth would be asleep(that was before we had our own beetle)! hbg
Hah! :-)
Well ... Is it possible we were conceived in the back of a Beetle?
Or spent a lot of time driving one, in utero?
The sound is *very* distinct and familiar...
More info re the end of the old Bug
More info re the end of the old Bug---BumbleBeeBoogie
BID GOODBYE TO THE BUG - AP 6/7/03
VW converting last plant to new Beetle
Berlin: Volkswagen said Friday it will stop making the original rear-engine Beetle this year, bringing the curtain down on the nearly 70-year history of the classic "bug."
Production of the last old beetles at the VW plant in Puebla, Mexico, "will end this summer," spokesman Fred Baerbock said, adding that an exact date was not set. He said there had been sinking demand for the original model, manufactured only in Puebla since 1978.
The first version of what would become known as the Beetle was developed in 1934 under the guidance of Adolf Hitler, who wanted to build a "people's care"---or, in German, a Volkswagen. It first entered mass production after World War II.
Over the decades, the VW became a favorite of both thrifty postwar Germans and in the 1960s young Americans before competition from Japanese compacts elbowed it aside.
Volkswagen sold more than 21 million of the cars over the decades, but says it produced fewer than 30,000 at Puebla last year.
Puebla will continue to produce the New Beetle sedan, a modernized successor to the car. The New Beetle hit the market in 1998 and has a chassis based on the VW Golf.
Since BBB posted this, I've been looking at the beetles i see around. I've been reminded of my initial impression of the New Beetle - that it looks like an old Beetle driving backwards. Boo Hiss.
