Do you think Dr. Porsche would have ever thought his Beetle would still be in production more than 50 years after his death?  If a "modern" car can remain in production without a major change in it's platform for 10 years it's an amazing feat . . . The Beetle has been in production for 64 years and counting (but the end IS near).  Porsche's "Peoples Car" Prototypes that were recongnizable as Beetles predate production at least 5 years.  I wonder how long the New Beetle production will last?

There were only about 400 of the convertibles built in Jan. 1980 weren't there?  Better hang on to that one Jami!   :cool:

Hummm . . . that's interesting.  

With Mexico City pushing to eliminate 2 door taxis it appears that the end is VERY near for the old Air Cooled Beetles, but you never know.  There are still countries where Beetle production could move.  If an "emerging" country had a larger labor force in need of jobs and that labor force wanted transportation, the old Beetles could be just what they need to really get their economy off the ground.  It helped pull Germany out of the rubble of WWII and more recently has been a big factor in the Mexican economy.

If the US stops buying New Beetles it will die.  Not much question about that.  There just isn't enough demand for it elsewhere in the world.  But when Mexico stops producing the old Beetle, I wouldn't be surprised to see it pop up again somewhere in a remote country none of us have ever heard of.  I don't want to see the New Beetle dropped anytime soon, but I would really love to see the old Beetle outlive it's offspring.    :cool: