Everyone knows this little bug, the start of the people's car, the literal definition of a Volkswagen.
It may not have sold as well in the USA due to Ford's... well... Practices and other factors such as it being a car hailing from the bad part of Germany's history, it still did a tremendous impact in the rest of the world and its impact was so incredibly large that you can still see it on the road today.
Of course if you live in Europe it's going to be a little hard to see this Porsche-looking classic... Wait actually, Porsches look like the Beetle; well anyway, you're likely not to see it, but go to any so called "third-world" country and you WILL see them. No matter what city or region. Suburbs, commercial area or farmland, there will be at least one Beetle waiting for you.
And it's not really surprising, they sold like bananas to our little banana republics. They were cheap and could fit a family. Do you need anything else?
Nowadays there are cars that are also cheap and have all the conveniences of modern cars down here in Brazil, but our Fuscas (Beetles in Portuguese) are still near and dear to our hearts. That's why we buy them, modify them, and some older folk stick to them, like they stick to radio, refuse to buy smartphones and avoid anything internet-related like the plague, because the good old times are always better (sometimes they are, but not the Beetle, please, stop daily driving them, get a Gol or a Sandero).
In fact, I was actively thinking about this last Monday. Me and my family were coming back from Carnaval parties in Florianópolis, a good 100kms (60 miles) from my town, and I hadn't see a single Beetle.
We decided to stop by Nações Shopping Center in Criciúma, since it was already lunch time and we were hungry after such a long drive.
And I still had it in my head.
"I didn't see a single Beetle today."
That day on the interstate I saw 3 cars with non-Brazilian license plates, all lined up.
One with an old-style black Argentinian plate, one with a blue Mercosur/Mercosul Argentinian plate and to the left a Mercosul Uruguayan plate. That's a one in a million, a millions to one.
I saw that, but didn't see a Beetle.
As we got into the Shopping Center, we left our car, a nice, kinda cheap but not so dated Renault/Dacia Duster in the parking lot and went inside. The eating area of that huge complex was on the other inside, so it was a long walk.
After just 2 minutes of walking though... I saw it...
My hands trembling, my body shaking. I couldn't believe it.
Another one of fate's pranks.
WHAT THE F
They're always doing displays of cars there, such as luxury cars, racing cars, classics, but never, and I say NEVER, had I seen them do BEETLES.
EXCLUSIVELY BEETLES.
It sounds comical, but it's true.
Hey, I wasn't mad though. These babies were looking FINE. Absolutely perfect shape and some rocking the new Mercosul license plates even. It was a nice sight to see. It's good to preserve the classics, not to let the people behind in traffic suffocate.
Ok, you've had it with the Beetles, have some of the other stuff they've shown in the past there.
I could make a post just about Nações' Auto-Show, but yeah, they do some pretty cool stuff.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I can't get that damn car out of my mind. I'll play some Forza now and to be safe I'll stick to Horizon 4. Not many Beetles in Scotland... I think.
