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In the 1950s, it was more comfortable and powerful than most European small cars, having been designed for sustained high speed on the Autobahn, and ultimately became the longest-running and most-produced automobile of a single design. It remained a top seller in the US, even as rear-wheel drive conventional subcompacts were refined, and eventually replaced by front-wheel drive models — owing much of its success to high build quality and innovative advertising. Along with cars including the Morris Minor, Fiat 500, Renault 4CV and Dauphine, Citroen 2CV, Fiat 600, Saab 92, Volvo PV444 — the Beetle pioneered the modern continental economy car. Subsequently it served as the benchmark for the initial two generations of American small cars, the first wave which included compact cars such as the Chevrolet Corvair and Ford Falcon and the later wave of subcompact cars such as the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto. The 1948 Citroen 2CV had begun the switch to front wheel drive in the small car market by European manufacturers that happened in the 1960s and 1970s — with Volkswagen among the last to make the change, with the Golf ultimately succeeding the Beetle. Originally known as Käfer, German for "beetle", the car ultimately took the same nickname in English. It was not until August 1967 that the parent company itself began using the name "Beetle" in marketing materials in the US. Previously, it had only been known as either the "Type 1" or as the VW 1100, 1200, 1300, 1500, or 1600 which had been the names under which the vehicle was marketed in Europe; the numbers denoted the vehicle's approximate engine size in cubic centimetres. In 1998, many years after the original model had been dropped from the lineup in most of the world (production continued in Mexico until 9 July 2003), VW introduced the "New Beetle" (built on a Volkswagen Golf Mk4 platform) which bore a visual resemblance to the original. In a 1999 international poll for the world's most influential car of the twentieth century the Beetle came fourth after the Ford Model T, the Mini, and the Citroën DS. |
