TheVolkswagen Beetle , the well - sell car of all metre , was n’t always so dear . The car was n’t truly invented by the Nazis , in the sense that they did n’t design it or build it , but that ’s just a matter of semantics . The Beetle was indeed the result ofAdolf Hitler’splan to build a reliable car that intemperately - working German families could afford . He met with car fashion designer Ferdinand Porsche in 1935 to set his design into motion . The automobile had to invest five occupants , be wanton to maintain , capable of traveling quick on the autobahn and be low-cost on an average salary .
It consider a while for the round-eyed , airwave - cool down , back end - engined railroad car to catch on in other role of the world . The Brits reckon it was noisy and hideous . Americans were hesitant to support anything even remotely connect to Hitler or the Nazi party . A rival motorcar company arrogate that chemical element of Porsche ’s design copied some of their own , a guinea pig which VW settled a distich decades later . It was revealed even later that Hitler steal many elements of his 1935 design from an earlier vehicle that was designed and driven by an artificer and journalist named Josef Ganz . Hitler spotted Ganz ’s railcar at a show in 1933 , and the key elements of its pattern finish up in the Volkswagen . Ganz even called his car the May Bug . Shortly after Hitler and Porsche hashed out their plan , Ganz , who was Jewish , closed his business and flee to Switzerland .
But the general world , those who recognise nothing of the copyright and design issues while the Volkswagen Beetle was in yield , were really only concerned with the motorcar ’s connexion to Hitler , the Nazis and the lasting issue of World War II . Eventually , though , citizenry across the orb bit by bit agreed that the Beetle was establish on a self-coloured premise , and it was okay to accept " The People ’s Car " and still be opposed to Hitler and his followers . The Nazis never in reality grow or sold the railcar themselves , so that helped . In the 1960s , after a cagey marketing military campaign , the VW Beetle became the best - deal imported motorcar in America . And in the lag , Volkswagen expanded its product lineup to include strain such as military vehicles , the soon - to - be - iconic VW Bus , the playful and boisterous Dune Buggy , and the svelte , Porsche - like Karmann Ghia coupe and convertible . The last traditional air - cool down VW Beetle rolled off the production line in Mexico in 2003 , and although the automobile ’s unfortunate historical roots have n’t been forgotten , it ’s light that most of the world is n’t holding a grudge against the car itself .
