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Volkswagen Beetle -

Pictured: Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951), the creator of the Volkswagen Beetle. In 1934, Porsche received an order from Adolf Hitler to design a "people's car." Porsche had already begun developing vehicles that incorporated the classic shape of the Beetle.

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The 1933 Type 32 prototype was characterized by a curved chassis.

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Adolf Hitler inspects the new Volkswagen "people's car" at the Fallersleben car factory, 1938. On Hitler's left is Ferdinand Porsche. During this period the car was known as the KdF-Wagen, a name chosen by the German leader.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Civilian car production was halted during World War II and resumed in 1945. A new factory located in renamed Wolfsburg became Volkwagen's manufacturing hub. By 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month. Pictured is a 1949 Type 1 split-window model.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The sparse but practical interior of the 1949 Type 1. 

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Volkswagen Beetle - Production increased dramatically over the next decade. By 1955 around one million cars were coming off the assembly line.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Hitler had wanted a vehicle that was cheap to buy, simple to drive, and could be mass-produced for the country's new road network.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Volkswagen adhered to these guiding principals, but the vehicle's output was boosted from its original 25 hp to 36, then 40 hp as Autobahn speeds increased in the postwar years.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Air-cooled and designed with the engine in the rear, the vehicle, now known as the Beetle, was economical to maintain and surprisingly robust. 

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Volkswagen Beetle - A Beetle parked outside the Gloria cinema on the Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin, 1956.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Another image from West Germany, this time taken in 1958, depicts several Beetles parked outside Café Keese on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg's St. Pauli district.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The jeweled one-millionth Type 1 1955 Beetle on display at the Wolfsburg Autostadt Museum. It's painted in a buttery ingot gold, enhanced with diamanté encrusted bumpers and trim, and fitted with a plush pink cloth interior.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The VW Beetle was extremely successful throughout the 1960s. Indeed, it experienced its greatest sales growth in North America between 1960 and 1965.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The Beetle became a popular touring vehicle. This image from 1966 depicts a traveler taking a break from driving in South Tyrol, Italy and enjoying the alpine views.

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Volkswagen Beetle - 'The Love Bug' (1968) starred a 1963 racing Beetle called Herbie and was hugely successful. The film spawned four sequels and a TV series.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Herbie the car is seen during the UK Premiere of 'Herbie: Fully Loaded' in London, 2005. The sports-comedy film grossed over US$144 million worldwide. 

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Volkswagen Beetle - A model demonstrates a reclining chair made from the hood of a Volkswagen Beetle, as was the fashion in 1971 for wacky, ad-hoc design.

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Volkswagen Beetle - By 1973, total Beetle production was over 16 million, and by June 1992, over 21 million had been produced.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The manufacture of the Beetle continued in Germany until 1978, when mainstream production shifted to Brazil and Mexico. 

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The much-loved Beetle convertible/Cabriolet ended production (as 1979 models) on January 31, 1980.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The final edition of the VW Beetle was unveiled at a presentation at the Volkswagen plant in Puebla, Mexico, on July 10, 2003. VW subsequently made 3000 "classic" Type 1 Beetles before ceasing production for good.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Pictured is a worker at VW's Puebla plant assembling one of the final edition Beetles. The iconic vehicle had enjoyed a lifetime of almost 70 years.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Bright yellow bodywork adds more color to this colonial-style sidewalk.

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Volkswagen Beetle - A burgundy-colored Beetle motors along an empty back road in Pomerode, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

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Volkswagen Beetle - A solitary tree provides shade from the sun for this Beetle driver in Izmir, Turkey. 

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Volkswagen Beetle - A detail of the modified VW Beetle of Vancouver, Canada resident Mark Heartwell. 

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Volkswagen Beetle - The hood of an ornate and intricately detailed hand-beaded Beetle. 

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Volkswagen Beetle - A restored classic 1950's gray VW Beetle, spotted in Pennsylvania.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The facade of the Sonora Art Museum in Hermosillo, Mexico, with a sculpture in the foreground made with VW Beetle bodies.

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Nature appears to have taken over this Beetle, which puts a new spin on environmentally friendly vehicles.

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Volkswagen Beetle - A pink VW Beetle Convertible positively pops with color against the whitewashed facade of a church in the village of Megalochori, Greece.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The turquoise body of this Beetle parked on the street next to a sidewalk in the Mala Strana neighborhood of Prague, Czech Republic provides a vibrant point of focus.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Check out the Bugg Ranch public art installation of VW Beetle wrecks at Conway, Texas, located along the famous Route 66.

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Volkswagen Beetle - A shiny black vintage Volkswagen Beetle Convertible car, parked in the old town of Lucca, in Italy's Tuscany region. This special version of the VW classic was manufactured by the Karmann company between 1949 and 1980.

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Volkswagen Beetle - A Beetle police car is parked in front of the city hall of Speyer. Until the late 1970s, the Beetle was the most used police car in Germany.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Horses convene in a field around an abandoned old Beetle at Bear Lake in Utah.

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Volkswagen Beetle - A jet-powered Blue Max VW Beetle burnout at the Flame and Thunder event in 2011 at Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire, UK.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The "Suedsteiermark Classic" vintage car rally in Sommeralm, Austria often attracts Beetle entries like this splendid 1959 VW Keafer Type 11 Luxus.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Out for a drive and a picnic in Massachusetts.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Abandoned Beetles turn up in all sorts of places, including the remote Namibian desert in southern Africa. 

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Volkswagen Beetle - A timeless image of a VW Beetle, this one obviously geared up for touring vintage style.

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Volkswagen Beetle - A remarkable example of aerography, a surrealist technique in which a stencil used in spray painting is replaced by a three-dimensional object, like this artsy-looking Beetle.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Even when long abandoned and in a dilapidated state, the Beetle body is instantly recognizable. In fact, this model appears almost forlorn and wanting in its appearance.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Cherished by many motoring enthusiasts, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single platform (a shared set of common design, engineering, and production efforts) ever made.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Over the years the Beetle was fitted with a variety of air-cooled engine types: 1100 cc H4, 1200 cc H4, 1300 cc H4, 1500 cc H4, and 1600 cc H4. 

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Volkswagen Beetle - A visitor takes a picture of a modified VW Beetle during a press presentation prior to the Essen Motor Show in Essen, Germany in  2012.

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Volkswagen Beetle - Bosnian pensioner Momir Bojic drives his wooden VW Beetle Celinac, near Banja Luka, 2014. An avid Volkswagen fan, he created the car from over 50,000 separate pieces of oak and took two years to complete it.

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A lovingly maintained 1967 model in pristine condition.

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The awesome Baja Bug, an original VW Beetle modified to operate off road. The vehicle originated in southern California in the late 1960s.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The Volkswagen New Beetle was introduced in 1997. While its shape was reminiscent of a classic Type 1, the engine was placed in the front of the vehicle.

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Volkswagen Beetle - A custom made 1998 Volkswagen Beetle, featured in the movie 'Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me' (1999). The car is worth between US$100,000-US$200,000.

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Volkswagen Beetle - The 2012 Volkswagen New Beetle was introduced in 2011. Lower and wider than the New Beetle it replaced, it was the second reincarnation of the original people's car.

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The vehicle was unveiled during the world premiere of the 21st Century Beetle at the E-Werk venue in Berlin, Germany.

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The 2017 Volkswagen Beetle was presented at the "Sunshinetour 2016" in Travemünde, Germany. Production ended in 2019 with two special editions featuring extra chrome, new wheels, and three-color ambient lighting inside.

See also: What was the best-selling car the year you were born?

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