VW’s ‘Homely Little Critter’ Is Now a Hot Collector’s Item : To ‘Bug’ Buffs, Beetles Are Beautiful--and Better Than Ever

It’s been 50 years since the first Volkswagen Beetle putt-putted out of a German factory, but the “homely little critter” with the bug-eyed headlights and anemic heater still warms the hearts of collectors.

“Other cars are interesting, but the Beetle is beautiful,” says Terry Shuler, 39, of Portage, president of the Vintage Volkswagen Club of America and author of a book on the car’s history.

“It’s so different looking. The Beetle was never copied. Nobody would dare copy the ugly Beetle. Then Volkswagen came out with their little Rabbit, and the whole world looks like Rabbits.”

Lester Goldsmith, 34, of Memphis, Tenn., who owns six Beetles, says, “When I think of ugly I think of a ’59 Cadillac and ’57 Plymouth. Now it may be homely to some, but it’s come to be cute to me. And once you get used to it, no other car looks right.”

20 Million Produced

It began as Adolf Hitler’s “People’s Car,” which branded it an untouchable in this country for many years. But eventually 20 million VW Beetles were produced, more than any other car in history, and the design changed little over the years.

“Can you conceive of anything coming out of Detroit today lasting 50 years?” asks VW spokesman Bob Stockton. “It just doesn’t happen.”

Even the company has trouble explaining the car’s mystique and its enduring popularity.

“There was something about the Beetle,” Stockton says. “It was a homely little critter, sort of like the Cabbage Patch Doll of the automotive world.”

Nearly 5 million Beetles, affectionately called “Bugs,” were imported into the United States from Germany until 1979. They were replaced by the radically different and more expensive Rabbit, which since 1978 has been assembled at a plant in New Stanton, Pa.

Collectors’ Craze

Beetles are still manufactured in Mexico and Brazil, although the latter is phasing out production at the end of this year. So it seems the little car is just about done for--except among collectors, who just can’t seem to let it go.

“People are not going to let it go,” says Jon Peters, 36, of Mountain View, Calif., who owns six old VWs. “If anything, people want VW to bring back the Beetle.

“The one thing VW didn’t count on is that it would have such a cult following.”

Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, a German automobile engineer, developed the concept for the Beetle as early as 1926 and built the first prototype 10 years later.

While Porsche is considered the father of VW, Hitler was its godfather. The German dictator wanted the Volkswagen to be a truly inexpensive people’s car.

Reliable, Economical

“Crude as it may seem from our perspective, the Beetle was the most aerodynamic vehicle of its day by light years, with its sloped nose, slanted windshield and sloped back and air-cooled rear engine,” Stockton says.

“It captured the hearts of many,” Goldsmith says. “It had a reputation for being notoriously reliable and economical. I can still operate my old Beetles more economically than a new car. I drive a 1955 daily.”

Despite its dependability, low cost and excellent gas mileage, it took about a decade following World War II for the Beetle to finally be accepted by the American public, partly because of its size and a stigma against anything German.

“After the war, everybody wanted big V-8s, a highway cruiser that could go down the Pennsylvania Turnpike at 60 m.p.h.,” Stockton says. “Families were bigger and fuel was cheaper. Why would you want this funny looking German car that goes putt, putt, putt?”

Dismal Beginning

Ben Pon, an exporter from Holland, brought the first two Beetles into the United States in 1949.

“They failed so dismally that he had to sell them at cost to buy a ticket to get back home,” Stockton says.

By the 1960s, however, the German import had gained a solid foothold, and by 1970, VW was selling more than 400,000 Beetles a year, Stockton says.

But escalating prices, criticism by consumer advocates who claimed Beetles were unsafe, and a push to buy vehicles made in America tarnished the car’s luster by the mid-1970s and contributed to its demise in 1979.

Seven years later, an unknown number of late-model Bugs that refuse to quit, refurbished vintage cars and customized versions still scamper over American roads, particularly on the West Coast.

Cool Cal-Lookers

“To have a ‘Cal-looker,’ a California-style Beetle, is a big thing for a lot of the kids now,” Peters says. “You’re really cool if you have a Cal-looker with a big stereo system in it, the kind that makes the windows vibrate.

“But even when I take my 1950 deluxe Beetle out on the streets, you’d be amazed at the number of people who will take a look at it, who think it’s the neatest thing since sliced bread. You open the deck lid, and it looks like a little squirrel cage. They’re amazed that the thing gets down the road on such a small motor.”

Purists like Shuler and his club of roughly 2,000 members covet the Beetle for its simplicity, and they place a premium on unadulterated models that are at least 25 years old. But finding one in good shape can be a big order.

“They’ve been painted, covered with vinyl shelf paper, you name it, it’s been done, anything to protect that front hood,” Stockton says.

Price Has Risen

Next to authenticity, price is most important. Before they became antiques, Beetles were cheap. And it just isn’t fitting to pay tens of thousands of dollars for an old one, no matter what kind of shape it’s in.

“It’s the poor man’s collector’s car,” Shuler says. “People put money into it when they can afford to, and a lot of them do the work themselves.”

Collectors sometimes wait for years until someone parts with just the model they have been wanting. Others with a little more cash and a little less patience will travel to Germany or other parts of the globe for the truly rare models.

Shuler has done both. He called a woman in Maryland steadily for five years until she finally sold him her 1950 Hebmuller, a two-seater Beetle convertible. He also traveled to Germany three years ago to buy a very rare 1943 Beetle.

Mass of Memorabilia

“I couldn’t pass it up,” he says. “During the war they only made about 1,000 Beetles, and this one is No. 635.”

In a second-floor room of his white frame house in this south-central Pennsylvania town, Shuler produces the club’s monthly newsletter, maintains a large library of English- and German-language automobile books and manuals, and displays a vast array of VW memorabilia. His collection is so extensive that the Smithsonian Museum in Washington has asked to borrow several items for an exhibit.

Decades of VW radios line one shelf. Large scrapbooks filled with old VW sales brochures, another popular collector’s item, monopolize a card table. Photographs of Shuler standing next to various Beetles line the walls.

Good for 60,000 Miles

A glass bookcase contains VW model cars, hubcaps, VW pins and badges, old VW turn signals called semaphores, and even a watch the company used to give to people whose cars went at least 60,000 miles without major repairs.

“Trouble was, everybody’s VW went that far without any major trouble,” Shuler says, carefully fingering the watch’s leather strap and gold face. “The Beetle was so well built, so dependable, that they had to stop the program because it was getting so outrageously expensive.”

Still, the air-cooled Beetle had its faults, like its barely adequate heater and sluggish acceleration.

“Those of us who grew up with Beetles are tough, let me tell you,” Shuler says. “I drove a Volkswagen bus all these years, and until I got my 1984 Vanagon, I was cold. I had to bundle.”