How Beetle Overcame Nazi Past to Become Americans’ Car
This article is for subscribers only.
May 23 (Bloomberg) -- “Owning a VW is Like Being inLove,” Popular Mechanics announced after polling its readers in1956. “These owners have actually fallen in love with a car.”
Popular Mechanics wasn’t alone in marveling at the U.S.reception of the small “made in Germany” car. The New YorkTimes Magazine, Fortune, Business Week, Road and Track and theNation added to a buzz that was vastly disproportionate to thevehicle’s market share at the time. Of the 7.9 million newautomobiles sold in the U.S. in 1955, Volkswagen AG hadaccounted for just 28,907.