The TRUTH about…
I've previously waxed lyrical about the original VW Beetle, but Heinz Nordhoff's one-model policy which did much to secure Volkswagen's legendary success in the 1950s and 1960s almost destroyed the whole company in the 1970s. That's because whilst the Beetle continued to sell well in the US and other export markets in the late 1960s, sales declined sharply in Europe as Ford, Opel, Fiat, Renault and Peugeot introduced modern models which simply outclassed the venerable Type 1, offering better performance, greater safety and vastly better space utilisation.
VW had produced additional models besides the Beetle, although these were essentially variations on a theme. The 1955 KarmannGhia was a re-shelled Beetle, as was the 1961 Type 3 1500 to a great extent, together with the successor 1600 Fastback and Variant and Type 3 KarmannGhia models. The 411 and 412 Type 4 models continued the air-cooled, rear-engined design philosophy and failed in the market. The 1302 and 1303 Super Beetles which, like the Type 4s had Macpherson strut front suspension, failed to address the
