The Volkswagen Beetle as we know it today was introduced in 1938 as the KdF Wagen and had a distinguishable characteristic in its split rear window. It was pretty neat looking for the era in which the car was conceived but, as anyone who has driven one will tell you, isn’t the most functional piece of design.
I drove a Split Window VW for a couple of years, and well remember trying to see what was going on behind me through that small opening in the rear roof section, with the bar down the centre making it more of a guessing game than anything else.
Oval evolution
Over the years, Volkswagen made numerous improvements to the design of the Beetle, but the evolution from the split window to an oval shape in March of 1953 is one
