--------------- Forwarded Article ---------------

Description: VW To Revive The Beetle
Header: VW To Revive The Beetle

AP 28 Nov 94 16:31 EST V0389
 
Copyright 1994. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
 
   FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Is it a bug or isn't it? 
   "Well, yes, but ..." Volkswagen responded Monday when asked if a new car the
company plans to produce is indeed a reincarnated Beetle. 
   The new car, to be produced in the United States, Canada and South America,
will have the familiar domed chassis. But instead of the old rear-mounted,
air-cooled engine, the car will have a lean, front-mounted engine and new safety
features. 
   "This is a whole new car," company spokesman Matt Gernrich said. "The only
similarity to the Beetle would be from an aesthetic point of view." 
   With the new car, Volkswagen hopes to cash in on American nostalgia for a
legend on four wheels that during the 1960s came to symbolize cheap, reliable
transportation. 
   Gernrich said VW asked its California design studio in late 1992 to come up
with a new car that would appeal to Americans. The car, called Concept One, was
introduced at the Detroit Auto Show in January. 
   "Everyone said, 'That's the Beetle of the future,"' said Gernrich. VW was
deluged with thousands of letters from bug fans asking that the car be built. 
   "We didn't call the new car a Beetle, the public did," said Gernrich,
confirming that Volkswagen's supervisory board had decided Friday to go ahead
with production. 
   VW plans to begin building the car before the end of the decade, he said, The
company has previously indicated the new Beetle might be built in Mexico and be
priced at between $12,000 and $13,000. 
   The Beetle, the "people's car" that Volkswagen was created to build, was
designed by German engineer Ferdinand Porsche in 1934, shortly after Hitler came
to power. 
   European production stopped in 1978, and the model was pulled from U.S. auto
showrooms more than a decade ago after costly air pollution and safety
requirements made it obsolete. 
   The Beetle is still made in Mexico and Brazil, and with some 21 million
Beetles having rolled of the assembly line, it is the world's best-selling
automobile.