How the beetle is still running away from everyone today
"It runs and runs and runs ..." - many people still remember this advertising slogan for the VW Beetle. However, the Beetle did not have an easy time of it in the 1960s at the latest. It was getting a bit long in the tooth; after all, its technical design dated back to the 1930s. More modern competitors such as the Opel Kadett, the Austin 1100 or the Renault 4 showed the direction in which car development was heading: Water cooling instead of air cooling, front instead of rear engine and (partly) front instead of rear-wheel drive as well as the best possible use of space on a small footprint.
But the VW Beetle remained true to itself, which also had its advantages. Sports and racing driver Rainer Günzler (1927-1977) tested the constantly improved VW 1200 in 1965, and the results were then broadcast on the ZDF program "Der Sport Spiegel". Günzler was obviously not a fan of the Beetle, and he spoke at length about its disadvantages compared to the competition. Of course, he also mentioned the advantages of the Volkswagen, which included the above-average production quality - after all, a new car rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg every 12 or 13 seconds. He was less enthusiastic about the driving performance and driving dynamics, especially the crosswind sensitivity was legendary and was also impressively demonstrated.
It is actually hard to believe that the Beetle was still selling well years after the test, despite all its disadvantages. As is well known, a total of over 22 million were built by the new millennium.
And today, at least in this country, people pay considerably more for an old Beetle than for its competitors at the time; it is not unusual for a 60-year-old VW 1200 to fetch several times the price it did when new (without adjusting for purchasing power). In this respect, the Beetle still has the edge today.
Of course, if you fancy looking at the old test, we don't want to deny you the pleasure:
