In 1968, VW introduced the Automatic Stick Shift semi-automatic transmission option, essentially a regular Beetle four-speed manual with first gear removed, a torque converter added, and a vacuum-operated clutch that disengaged anytime the shifter is touched. For a look at the major events in the Bug's history, continue on: View Gallery 35 Photosįor such a low-tech car, the Beetle, at least for a time, offered a decidedly high-tech transmission. Over the years, very little about the Beetle changed it wasn’t until 1998 that the car received its first major redesign. sales ceased in 1979, the car continued to be built and sold in Mexico and Brazil. importation grew from a trickle in the early ’50s to a flood a decade later, and eventually 21 million Beetles would be sold worldwide. European civilians wouldn’t get their hands on the car until 1947, after production was restarted to provide ground transportation for Allied occupying troops. The first batch of finalized cars were birthed in 1938, only to see the gleaming new factory built to assemble them pulled into Germany's war effort and later bombed to near-oblivion. But the little VW’s history stretches all the way back to 1934, when development work started in earnest in Germany. In the U.S., the Bug was sold between 19, with sales resuming as a new model was introduced in 1998. Volkswagen’s Beetle is one of the oldest nameplates in automotive history still in use today.
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