At the beginning of this year, I went to see the movie "Flying Life", in addition to being moved by a sentence on Han Han's Weibo " Bayinbrook no sea, heroes never die" moved, the most impressive thing is that Zhang Chi, who is not willing to be abandoned by the times and desperately chases, can not be completed, can not be read, perhaps a sentence of "love", is to defeat all obstacles of the strong weapon. So when I heard the news of the Beetle's discontinuation this month, the only feeling in my heart was regret, life is not a movie, the Beetle defeated all opponents, but lost to this era.
On July 10th, Volkswagen's last Beetle car rolled off the production line at the Puebla plant in Mexico, announcing that the Beetle was officially discontinued, and the hot search on Weibo on the same day also left a place for this matter, so that many friends in my circle of friends who are not in the car circle have expressed pity.
The first time I saw the figure of the Beetle was in the elementary school to see the "Detective Conan", the yellow Beetle is the doctor's car, the juvenile detective team always has its figure around, until it grows up to see the real car of the Beetle, there is a kind of surprise of "breaking through the dimensional wall", the mood is comparable to the netizen face base after finding that the real person is better than the photo.
(The original Beetle in Detective Conan)
In terms of appearance, the Beetle's unique appearance is not inferior to any small car on the market, ranking fourth in the international voting of the most influential "20th century car", after the Ford Model T, MINI and Citroën DS. Hitler, who was determined to produce a "national car that the people can afford", probably never thought of the reason why the Beetle stopped production today: the high price and the impractical space made it impossible for it to become a best-selling hot model, and it could only be used as a "toy" for a small number of people, which was in an increasingly embarrassing position in the domestic market.
Beetle model prequel
In fact, the Beetle is very popular around the world, and from 1938 to 2019, the Beetle has left a total of 23.5 million sales for Volkswagen.
("People's Car" distribution scenario)
The original definition of the Beetle design was a "people's car", requiring two adults and three children, as well as their luggage, the prototype car sketch was drawn by Hitler, who loved to paint, this painting style is really difficult to say, just look at this picture is difficult to think of the later popular European Beetle, then it is necessary to mention the famous Porsche founder - Ferdinand Porsche.
(Hand-drawn by Hitler)
In order to design the car, Ferdinand Porsche drew 11 sketches by himself, and also presented him with a model of the Beetle on Hitler's birthday, and eventually his design won Hitler's favor and won the right to produce the Beetle.
(On Hitler's birthday)
From the first mass production to this year's production, the Beetle has experienced three generations.
First Generation Beetle (1938-2003)
The first generation of Beetle was born in Germany in 1938, the original name was not "Beetle", but "KdF Wagen", Chinese translated as "happiness is power", the name "Beetle" first appeared in "New York Time Magazine", the American "Time" magazine reporter called him "a cute little Beetle", but the strict Germans were not happy, until the name was widely circulated, the Germans officially named the car "Beetle".
The slender bonnet, round headlights, and rearward roof line are some of the most classic design elements of the first Generation Beetle. In fact, compared with the 3rd generation of Beetles, I personally still like this classic car version of the Beetle the most, which exudes a classic and retro flavor all over the body, and is the kind of large toy suitable for placing on the literary retro poster, not to mention the rear-drive air-cooled engine.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Beetle began to be sold worldwide, at the end of World War II, the Beetle was popular around the world, and it also contributed a lot of value to the post-war reconstruction of Europe.
Second Generation Beetle (2003-2011)
If the first generation of The Beetle is the pioneer of the model, then the second generation of the Beetle can be called a classic in the hearts of The Beetle fans, the design is actually a very difficult art, the first generation of models is like drawing on white paper, can be depicted wantonly, but the replacement is to modify the existing works, and the sequel of the good movie is easy to shoot more and more bad is a truth, a little careless, the new design will be sprayed to the skin, but fortunately the second generation of the Beetle succeeded.
In appearance, it maintains the iconic design such as round headlights and bulging engine canopy, but the most conspicuous is the curved symmetrical roof of the second generation Beetle standard, which fits perfectly with the C-pillar, which is the most attractive element of the second generation Of Beetle, and it is said that two-thirds of the people who buy the second generation Of Beetle are women.
The Beetle in this area has produced a very large change, from air cooling to water cooling, and the transmission form has changed from rear rear drive to front front drive. But for the large number of girls who buy the Beetles, this does not matter.
Third Generation Beetle (2012-2019)
A new generation of Beetles debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show on April 18, 2011, the new Beetle number is called "21st Century Beetle", this generation of Beetles is more in line with the modern aesthetic, the curve is smoother, making people look more comfortable, compared to the previous generation more mechanical, as to whether it is better to look, it is estimated that the wise see the wisdom.
Anyway, as a girl, I really don't like the design of the third generation of The Beetle, I always feel that compared with the previous generation of models, the taste is less, the shape still maintains the round design elements, the line under the hood is changed from arc to flat line, the addition of LED daytime running lights also makes it full of modernity, it should be rounded roof down 12mm, this is to meet the "sporty" aesthetic trend made by the change, but also let the dome roof also lose its characteristics, once was the return rate of the personality of the cute, After the replacement, it was also lost to everyone.
Coincidentally, in September of last year, I happened to attend the Volkswagen Imported Beetle Night, and if I knew that the Future Beetle would be discontinued that day, I would have admired the classic Beetle show car on the exhibition.
The Beetle plagiarism storm
In fact, the Beetle car in more than eighty years of career is not smooth sailing, for example, the biggest storm is the initial because of plagiarism defendants in court, here have to mention a person is Theltella company Hans Ledvenka, Hitler has always been very fond of Hans Ledvenka design of the Suitra T87, so Ferdinand Porsche according to Hitler's taste to produce the Beetle and T89 is very similar, then the Beetle has not been plagiarized? The following figure puts on the appearance of the T87 for everyone to taste a product.
(Hans Ledvenka and Tetera T87)
Hans Ledvenka saw that this was naturally unconvinced, and in a fit of anger, he met with the Volkswagen court, in 1961, Volkswagen lost the lawsuit to Tathella, although the payment of Taetella 3 million Deutsche Marks as tort damages, but this is not painful for the Beetles of the centuries.
Then there is Hans Ledvenka, as an Austrian, he worked in a Czech car company, chose to cooperate with Germany during World War II, and after the war, the new Czechoslovak government liquidated the Nazi remnants, and Hans Liedvenka was imprisoned because he was on the wrong side, and died tragically a few years later. On the one hand, Ferdinand Porsche's fame and fortune, on the other hand, Hans Ledvenka regretted it and had to be lamented. But then again, the strength of Aether La's year and the war storms experienced, whether it can have the strength to make this car popular all over the world is still unknown, can only say a word of fate to create people.
The Beetle can be counted as one of the most classic models in the world, the classic appearance of the model attracted the love of countless fans, after ending 81 years of life, the Beetle finally ended its legendary life, but I think whether it is discontinued or not, it will not affect the Beetle to become the white moonlight in the hearts of many people. It would be fitting to end with the phrase "never say never", and maybe one day the Beetle will come back to us again.
BY Aika Car Card Friends - is a propaganda