Vehicle-specific luggage - for the VW Beetle
We are familiar with this topic from the expensive Mercedes-Benz 300 SL or the noble Ferrari sports cars. An optimized luggage set is offered for the limited trunk space, often sinfully expensive, but ideal for making maximum use of the minimal storage space.
In the past, customers could not only order specific luggage sets for expensive luxury sports cars, but also for normal VW Beetles.
The luggage set was available in corduroy hardboard (above) or in the luxury version in the finest cowhide with "distinctive interior fittings". The inexpensive version cost a total of 79.50 Swiss francs as a four-piece set, while the luxury version cost 469.50 Swiss francs, which was almost 10% of the value of the Beetle at the time.
But the Volkswagen driver interested in accessories in 1956 (see sales brochure facsimile) could not only buy suitcases, but also a mechanical windshield washer system, a Bosch double-sound fanfare, a bumper for the rear and front, a tool set for stowing in the spare wheel, wheel trims, stone guards, a parking heater, a fuel gauge, exterior rear-view mirrors, a radio aerial, a signal ring (to operate the horn), Zikada car radios, a passenger grab handle, interior loading surfaces, to name just a few examples. If you had full access here, you could easily buy accessories worth over 30% of the new vehicle price. So hardly anything has changed since then.
