This is the last EVER Volkswagen Beetle

Production of the Volkswagen Beetle has finally ended, eighty years since the Beetle was created as a ‘People’s Car’ by the German Nazis in the 1930s.

Has any car got as diverse a history as the Volkswagen Beetle?

From its birth as a ‘People’s Car’ in the 1930s propaganda and control of the Third Reich – and designed by Porsche – the Beetle went on to be the favourite transport of the Hippy classes in the 1960s, ending up as a bit of a nostalgia buy for middle class families in the late 1990s when the ‘New Beetle’ arrived.

Owing its longevity – and even its existence beyond a Nazi notion of transport for the masses – to Major Ivan Hurst, who took control when the VW factory came under his charge after WWII, the Beetle has been around even longer than the Land Rover, but now, finally, production ends as the last VW Beetle rolls off the production line in Mexico.

Despite sales in its lifetime of over 25 million, the VW Beetle is now an oddity for VW, eschewed by modern buyers in favour of SUVs and crossover and really no longer relevant. It should really never have been brought back.

But the modern iteration of the Beetle apart, its place in automotive history is secure, and this last ever VW Beetle is destined for Volkswagen’s museum