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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I guess I should

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Speaker 2: say beep beep and welcome to the podcast. This is

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Speaker 2: stuff you should know. It's a love bug of podcasts,

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Speaker 2: and the reason why is because it features Charles W. Chuck,

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Speaker 2: Wayne Chuck, Tran Bryet.

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Speaker 1: Is it a reference to my first car or just

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Speaker 1: me just you you love bug? Oh? Okay, I got you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Jerry's a love bug too, but much more insect.

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Speaker 1: Like this was my first car.

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Speaker 2: I know. Is that why you selected this? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I mean I've always had a soft spot for the

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Speaker 1: old VW Beetle. I had a sixty eight that my

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Speaker 1: parents bought new in nineteen sixty eight, which, as we'll see,

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Speaker 1: was the year they boomed in the States.

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Speaker 2: Know, I do know that. Yes, I didn't know if

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Speaker 2: there was more to your story.

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Speaker 1: No, No, I thought, no, I mean, I'm continuing my story,

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Speaker 1: so yeah, I just thought that you might react or something.

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Speaker 1: It's fine. Then I later had a seventy five super

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Speaker 1: Beetle Liar, and then I had a square back, a

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Speaker 1: Type three square back I think it was a seventy

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Speaker 1: five as well, and that was actually my favorite of

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Speaker 1: them all.

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Speaker 2: But I'm not familiar with that last one.

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Speaker 1: You'd recognize it. It was sort of a it was it

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Speaker 1: was their version of a station wagon.

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Speaker 2: Oh, you're talking about the thing.

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Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, thing wasn't a station wagon at all.

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Speaker 2: No, I've never seen a Beatle station wagon in my life. Dude.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Welston, you picture.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, that's cool. I guess it was roomy trunk wise.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, not at all. It was you know about it.

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Speaker 1: It was probably in the chassis of a Beatle, so

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like it was big. It wasn't like the

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Speaker 1: huge station wagons of its day.

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Speaker 2: So it was basically just the the shape of it

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Speaker 2: kind of was station wagon esque.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to send a picture right now, buddy.

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Speaker 2: Please do. I don't have my phone near me, but

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Speaker 2: I'll pretend I saw it. Okay, have you sent it yet?

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Speaker 2: Not yet?

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Speaker 1: Just say, oh my god, I have seen one of those.

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Speaker 2: Okay, tell me when you sent it.

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Speaker 1: Well, just continue because it's taking longer than I thought.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I have a riddle for you, Charles. Okay, what

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Speaker 2: do the foreign words babble? Cosinel Tortuga Subpito, Buba, and

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Speaker 2: vo Cheeto all have in common.

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, they are all various names in various

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Speaker 1: countries of the Volkswagen Beetle.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's long and short of it. They have nothing

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Speaker 2: else in common except for that. But that's pretty cute.

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Speaker 2: All of those names are pretty cute. And the reason

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Speaker 2: why is because the VW Beetle is a very cute car,

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Speaker 2: which is kind of a strange thing to say. If

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Speaker 2: we were to go back to the fifties, old old timey,

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Speaker 2: nineteen fifties, post war American suburban dudes would probably beat

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Speaker 2: us up for saying that the Beatle was cute. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: say no, it's an ugly car. Everybody knows that, and

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Speaker 2: no one thinks that anymore. Everyone loves the Beatle. And

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Speaker 2: that's the end of the podcast.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good night, I sent you the picture. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you tomorrow.

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Speaker 2: Hold on, Oh yeah, I've seen one of those before.

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Speaker 2: They're great.

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Speaker 1: Well, I look forward to your real and your rear

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Speaker 1: response later. But I called mine the Type three. It

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Speaker 1: was a Type three square back. But the original name

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Speaker 1: of the VW Beatle was a Volkswagen Type one, and

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Speaker 1: the Germans themselves kind of renamed it der kefer K

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Speaker 1: a umlaut fer, which is Beatle in German. But Volkswagen,

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Speaker 1: I mean they kind of just took that name upon

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Speaker 1: themselves because people were calling it that already.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they stole it from Dervaulk der.

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Speaker 1: Volk, yeah, the people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because it was der Volk who came up with

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Speaker 2: the name Beatle, like you said, but it was der

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Speaker 2: Volk for whom the Beatle was created, Chuck. Which is

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Speaker 2: the reason why Volkswagen is called Volkswagen. It means the

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Speaker 2: People's car. And that is the basis of the entire

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Speaker 2: story of the Beatle. The whole thing was started off

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Speaker 2: in the nineteen thirties, championed by no less than Adolf

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Speaker 2: Hitler in Germany, I mean, where else. And the point

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Speaker 2: of the car was to create an affordable car that

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Speaker 2: the average German family could use on the newly built Audubonds,

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Speaker 2: which Kraftwerk famously sung about, and which would also bring

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Speaker 2: the German economy out of the slump that it had

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Speaker 2: been in during the Weimar Republic. And I don't know

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Speaker 2: if you remember or not, but we talked about the

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Speaker 2: German hyperinflation many times around this time. In my twenties

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Speaker 2: early thirties, and get this. There's a stuff you Should

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Speaker 2: Know listener. Dave Kusten sent this to us yesterday. I

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Speaker 2: don't know if you saw, but there's a stuff you

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Speaker 2: should Know listener named Scott Seligman, and he created a

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Speaker 2: like a search tool where you can search keywords and

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Speaker 2: it will bring up every Stuff you Should Know episode

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Speaker 2: that we mentioned, say the word hyperinflation in so that's

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Speaker 2: how I know that it was in our episode on

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Speaker 2: currency that we talked about that. So hats off to

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Speaker 2: Scott Seligman.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, can people use that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? So the URL is just too cluegy to say

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Speaker 2: out loud, so I would encourage people. I think he

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Speaker 2: posted it on the Stuff you Should Know subreddit, and

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Speaker 2: that would be a good place to go. Get it.

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Speaker 1: You should have made one of those little URL shorteners.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if that's legal to do that to

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Speaker 2: someone else's u R l.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I don't know. I thought that was just a

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Speaker 1: way to send out like, hey, just go to you know,

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Speaker 1: keyword syskkeyword dot com or something and it would reader.

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Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, I'm not that sad of each Okay, I'm

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Speaker 2: forty nine years old. For PiZZ sake.

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Speaker 1: Hey, speaking of that and craft work, that leads me

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Speaker 1: around to this. Did you notice that I used craft

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Speaker 1: work on your stuff? You should know birthday post?

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Speaker 2: No I didn't. I saw that post. Thank you very

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Speaker 2: much for super sweet, But no, I didn't notice. What

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Speaker 2: was the craft work reference?

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Speaker 1: Did you know I had the craftwork song playing to

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Speaker 1: the post?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I know, yeah, I never have my volume up

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Speaker 2: for stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: Which one I got you.

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Speaker 2: A model? I don't know it would be appropriate.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure which one it was. I wish it

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Speaker 1: was autobunding because I'd really bring this sing full circle.

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Speaker 2: It really would. But still the craft work mentioned, I'm

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Speaker 2: gonna go back and listen to it. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna look at the picture of your your station

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Speaker 2: wagon and listen to the kraft work song that you

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Speaker 2: posted for my birthday. I appreciate that. Man.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's only a station wagon in the purest

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Speaker 1: sense of the word. It's more like a stretched hatchback.

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Speaker 2: It's too late, Chuck, you really built it up as

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Speaker 2: a station You can't back title now.

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Speaker 1: But they also had and you know this is along

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Speaker 1: the same lines instead of the actual squared back that

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Speaker 1: was oh what did they call it? Not the round

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Speaker 1: back or did they the green back? I don't know,

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Speaker 1: but they had a similar model, except if it wasn't

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Speaker 1: as boxy. It was a little rounded, but it still

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Speaker 1: had the hatchback.

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm totally lost. Now I know about

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Speaker 2: the Beatle, but that's about it.

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Speaker 1: All right. Well, let's keep talking about the Beetle then,

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Speaker 1: like you said, the People's car, We're going to tell

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Speaker 1: you about the history here, because the history is a

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Speaker 1: little complicated. And I don't mean like, oh, it's complicated

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Speaker 1: because the Nazi Party, you know, commissioned it. It's complicated

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Speaker 1: because there's a bunch of different people who they borrowed

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Speaker 1: heavily from to kind of make the Beatle. Hitler and

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Speaker 1: there are also, you know, various stories, depending on who

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Speaker 1: you want to listen to, about whose initial idea it was. Hitler,

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Speaker 1: if he were alive today, would say that it was

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Speaker 1: his idea first and foremost, and he picked Austrian, a

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Speaker 1: gentleman named Ferdinand Porsche mm hmmmm, porsche mm hmm, to

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Speaker 1: design the first Volkswagen, and that Porsche came up with

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Speaker 1: that iconic shape, you know, that round looking weird looking

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Speaker 1: car for the time. I mean, we're so used to

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Speaker 1: him now because it's literally the best selling car of

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Speaker 1: all time by a long shot, that everyone's like, no,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't look weird. It looks like a beetle. But

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Speaker 1: back then it looked very strange.

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Speaker 2: It did, and that was essentially the end of the story.

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Speaker 2: Fernand Porsche came up with the design. He also came

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Speaker 2: up with the the Beatles iconic characteristics, which is that

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Speaker 2: the engine is in the rear, it's air cooled, it

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Speaker 2: saves on space, you don't have all those tubes or

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Speaker 2: whatever for water fuel, liquid fueled or cooled engine, and

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Speaker 2: that it had real rear whale drive. So essentially, the

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Speaker 2: Beetle was created a whole out of out of the

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Speaker 2: first time out of the gate by ferinand Porsche under

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Speaker 2: orders essentially from Adolf Hitler. That's like the story that

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Speaker 2: most people know. Even Volkswagens like, yeah, that's not quite right.

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Speaker 2: There's some other details in there that are a little different,

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Speaker 2: and yet they still give all credit to ferinand Porsche, which,

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Speaker 2: as we'll see, is misplaced. Really, if you drill down

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Speaker 2: into it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, supposedly it could fit for adults. That's the party line. Well,

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Speaker 1: I guess that's really not the right thing to say there,

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Speaker 1: although it was the Nazi party. Yeah, but you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean, it's just an expression. Sure, but two

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Speaker 1: adults in that back have to be pretty small adults.

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Speaker 1: The backseat didn't have a lot of room, it didn't

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Speaker 1: go super fast, but it could top sixty miles an hour.

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Speaker 1: At the nineteen thirty four International Automobile and motor Cycle

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Speaker 1: Exhibition in Berlin, Hitler came up on stage gave a

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Speaker 1: speech basically saying that you know, I have called for

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Speaker 1: the creation of this car, car of the people. Something

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Speaker 1: it would be affordable, something that you can drive on

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Speaker 1: the Autobon, unless you're Jewish, of course, because Jewish people

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Speaker 1: were not allowed to drive on the Audubon. And the

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Speaker 1: initial price was nine hundred and ninety reich marks, not

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Speaker 1: Deutsche Marx but reich marks, which was about thirty one

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Speaker 1: week salary for the average German worker. So not a

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Speaker 1: lot of money, but a lot of money at the

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Speaker 1: time for sure.

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Speaker 2: For sure, but still affordable, right, I mean this is

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Speaker 2: unless they made you pay it all at once, then

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Speaker 2: it probably wasn't very affordable. The point was to make

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Speaker 2: an affordable car for Germany and then also create what

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Speaker 2: almost amounted to a national state owned car company, yeahs Wagon,

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Speaker 2: and to create both this car and ultimately the company

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Speaker 2: that made the car, Volkswagen. In nineteen thirty four, the

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Speaker 2: Reich Automotive Industry Association was formed. And that right is

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Speaker 2: kind of a giveaway that the Nazis ran this consortium

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Speaker 2: of privately owned car manufacturers in Germany. Brought them all

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Speaker 2: together and said, defur really would like you guys to

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Speaker 2: get together and make this people's car, and if not,

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Speaker 2: you will all be summarily shot, and so will all

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Speaker 2: of your family. I don't know if they said that

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Speaker 2: last part, but I think basically everything that was said

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Speaker 2: in Germany during the thirties had that unspoken attached to

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Speaker 2: the end of it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, And you know, just to be clear,

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Speaker 1: because I think I was probably confusing things a little bit.

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Speaker 1: The two versions of that story is one Hitler said

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Speaker 1: it was his idea, and then two Volkswagen said no,

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Speaker 1: it was really Porsche's idea to begin with.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that Hitler took and ran with it exactly, But

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Speaker 2: I don't know that he is said to have given

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Speaker 2: Porsche the credit probably not. But the upshot of it

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Speaker 2: is that this consortion of German automakers hired for Nam

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Speaker 2: Porsche to create and design and create this Volkswagen. So

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Speaker 2: there's no question about that. Like the original Volkswagen Beetle

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Speaker 2: was created by Ferdinand Porsche. What makes this whole story

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Speaker 2: even more convoluted. You thought that was convoluted, everybody buckle.

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Speaker 1: Up, Well, they didn't have seat belts either.

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Speaker 2: Hang on to your oh shoot bar, yeah exactly. It

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Speaker 2: gets way more convoluted than that because it turns out

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Speaker 2: that Ferdinand Porsche either took credit for a lot of

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Speaker 2: other people's ideas or just over time was given credit.

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Speaker 2: They're kind of like, you know, the short sketch version

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Speaker 2: of the story. Most people don't go into this much

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Speaker 2: detail into the story of the VW. But we're stuff

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Speaker 2: you should know, so we're going to do that. But

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Speaker 2: there were a few people that kind of along the

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Speaker 2: way contributed to the what would become the Beatle very directly.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't like, hey, we should make a car and

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Speaker 2: call it the Beetle. Their ideas were essentially taken and

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Speaker 2: adopted and turned into the Beatle. Sometimes like as a whole.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was. It's pretty blatant when you

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Speaker 1: look at these designs and these sketches and drawings and

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Speaker 1: stuff like that. The first guy we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: about is Joseph Ghanz who was a Hungarian Jewish engineer,

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Speaker 1: and he came to Germany after World War One, and

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Speaker 1: from almost the beginning of the twentieth century, I guess

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Speaker 1: it was like nineteen oh four nineteen oh five, people

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Speaker 1: were talking about like a people's car. You know, motorcycles

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Speaker 1: were the only kind of inexpensive way to get around,

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Speaker 1: and they thought, hey, if we could get a car

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Speaker 1: that's you know, not too much more than a motorcycle,

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Speaker 1: it could actually hold a few Germans, then we'd be,

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Speaker 1: you know, doing pretty well for ourselves. And he was

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Speaker 1: a editor of a German car magazine, so he was

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Speaker 1: he knew his way around the idea of like an affordable, lightweight,

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Speaker 1: kind of smallish car.

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Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, he also used that position to promote and

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Speaker 2: try to drum up support for the idea of a

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Speaker 2: German and people's car in the pages of that magazine too,

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Speaker 2: which I think was Car und Driver. He even went

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Speaker 2: so far as to design a prototype that he actually

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Speaker 2: called the may Coffer the may Beetle. Yeah, nineteen thirty one,

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Speaker 2: this is long before the Beatle was even called the

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Speaker 2: Beetle popularly. And he had there was another car called

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Speaker 2: the Standard Superior. Did you see a picture of one

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Speaker 2: of those.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it looks like a Volkswagen Beetle exactly.

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Speaker 2: And so the apparently that was based on one of

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Speaker 2: Joseph Gonz's patents. So this guy definitely had a lot

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Speaker 2: of contribution to the development of the Beatle. And we're talking,

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Speaker 2: I mean nineteen thirty one. The Standard Superior is built.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen thirty three the Beatles started to start to

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Speaker 2: be built, and I think nineteen thirty four, thirty five,

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Speaker 2: thirty six, So this is like, it's not like the

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Speaker 2: Ferdinand Porsche was totally unaware of the Standard Superior. It

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Speaker 2: was a car you could buy in Germany at the time.

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Speaker 2: So you might say, well, why was Joseph Ghans not

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Speaker 2: credited for this, Why wasn't he hired instead of Ferdinand Porsche.

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Speaker 2: Well he was Jewish and he was arrested by the

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Speaker 2: Gestapo before the Volkswagen Beetle was ever created, but right

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Speaker 2: before it, so it was very easy for Ferdinand Porsche

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Speaker 2: to be like Joseph, who these are my ideas?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. He was arrested in thirty three and fled

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Speaker 1: the country in thirty four, and that was kind of it.

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Speaker 1: He never got any kind of compensation or anything or

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Speaker 1: any recognition either, even except for I mean us and

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Speaker 1: other people on the internet.

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Speaker 2: I guess sure, and that's what counts, right. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The second guy we're going to talk about, another Hungarian engineer.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what the little accents mean as far

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Speaker 1: as pronoun pronunciation goes in Hungarian, but I'm just gonna

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Speaker 1: say bella bargni.

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Speaker 2: Okay, good enough? Sure, all right.

296
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Speaker 1: So he also wanted to build like a people's car,

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Speaker 1: sort of a small and expensive thing. This was like

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Speaker 1: he was a kid, He was a teenager in the

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Speaker 1: mid nineteen twenty when he came up with an idea

300
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Speaker 1: for a rear wheel drived, rear engine, air cooled engine.

301
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Speaker 1: And if you look at the sketch that he set

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Speaker 1: out in nineteen twenty five, and this is what eight

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Speaker 1: years before the standard Superior, even this thing looks a

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Speaker 1: lot like a Volkswagen Beetle.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the Chess is exactly the same essentially, and

306
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Speaker 2: then even the body he drew like a side view

307
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Speaker 2: of the car and it's a Beetle. I mean, like

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Speaker 2: he's creating this in nineteen twenty five, like you said,

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Speaker 2: as an eighteen year old, and this one is so

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Speaker 2: irrefutable that in the fifties he apparently sued Volkswagen and

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Speaker 2: they said, Okay, from now on, we will refer to

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Speaker 2: you as the intellectual father of the Beatle. Could you

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Speaker 2: definitely lay down all the stuff that later became the Beatle,

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Speaker 2: even though you weren't given credit at the time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And he was like, does a check come along

316
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Speaker 1: with that title?

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Speaker 2: And they said nine, yeah.

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Speaker 1: They probably did. It's interesting though, if you look at

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Speaker 1: the I'm getting confused now. I think the Standard Superior

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Speaker 1: is the one that looked like a Beatle ekscept the

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Speaker 1: front end had a little kind of squared off center.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure about the front end and all the

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Speaker 2: squared off business, but I do know that the lines

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Speaker 2: were more right angled rather than rounded.

325
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Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that's the one I was thinking of.

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Speaker 1: Like what it looks like actually is people VW Beetles

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Speaker 1: are highly have always been highly modifiable as far as

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Speaker 1: people making them look and as we'll see later, like

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Speaker 1: dune buggies or like this or that, and one of

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Speaker 1: the kind of I never really liked them that much.

331
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Speaker 1: But one of the kind of fun things you could

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Speaker 1: do with the Beatle was put a little front, squared

333
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Speaker 1: front end on it instead of that big rounded scoop,

334
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Speaker 1: you know, a square front like a Model T forward huh.

335
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Speaker 1: And that was something that people do to modify their Beatles.

336
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Speaker 1: And it looks a lot like the Standard Superior that way.

337
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Speaker 2: Oh like the hood, yeah, turning that Yeah, okay, I gotcha.

338
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Speaker 2: I got your I wasn't I'm not up with the

339
00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:09,679
Speaker 2: jargon and the lingo here I could Yeah, yeah, I

340
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Speaker 2: don't know this front and end thing.

341
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where the beat is.

342
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Speaker 2: I think the standards, right, I think the Standard Superior

343
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Speaker 2: did have a squared off hood as the way people

344
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Speaker 2: call it.

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Speaker 1: I'm a front ender. My bad.

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Speaker 2: And then there was one other guy too who was Austrian.

347
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Speaker 2: His name was Irwin Comenda, and he's the one who

348
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Speaker 2: actually filed the patent for the body that became the Beatle.

349
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Speaker 2: This wasn't like he drew something along the way. He

350
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Speaker 2: was working for Porsche. Porsche produced this design for this car,

351
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Speaker 2: and the guy who actually drew the design and patented

352
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Speaker 2: what the car ultimately looked like was a different guy.

353
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Speaker 2: Yet if you just listen to all the stories, essentially

354
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Speaker 2: it was Porsche Hitler Porsche Hitler overtime. V W would

355
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Speaker 2: try to get away from that story a little bit,

356
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Speaker 2: but it would come back to him. They had to

357
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Speaker 2: finally kind of deal with it head on. Yeah, as

358
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Speaker 2: we'll see. But in the meantime, Chuck, while we wait

359
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:10,800
Speaker 2: for VW to reckon with their Nazi past, I say

360
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Speaker 2: we take a break.

361
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Speaker 1: We'll be right back, all right. Earlier you said it

362
00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:38,320
Speaker 1: was thirty five, thirty six or so, it was in

363
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Speaker 1: fact thirty five when they delivered the first prototype. At

364
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Speaker 1: this point it was the VW Series three. Dave helped

365
00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:47,520
Speaker 1: us out with this, and he was keen to point

366
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Speaker 1: out it was made from steel and wood, which sounds

367
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Speaker 1: weird when you think of a car being made of

368
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Speaker 1: steel and wood, but back then cars were made of

369
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Speaker 1: steel and wood generally.

370
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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, And this was the prototype, but I think

371
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:02,399
Speaker 2: the the eventual ones that came out were made of

372
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Speaker 2: the same stuff. And if you look at it looks

373
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Speaker 2: like a cross between a beatle and one of the

374
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Speaker 2: black cabs in the UK. Yeah, like those things, like

375
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,719
Speaker 2: one mounted the other, and then the The Beatle Series

376
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:19,280
Speaker 2: three came out. Sure. A little fun fact of the podcast,

377
00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:21,520
Speaker 2: Hitler never knew how to drive. He never had a

378
00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:25,000
Speaker 2: driver's license, and yet if you step back, he was

379
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,080
Speaker 2: like directly in charge, or not directly in charge, but

380
00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,600
Speaker 2: he was overseeing this Like this, he knew what was

381
00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,359
Speaker 2: going on. Maybe not day to day, but generally he

382
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:37,360
Speaker 2: was getting updates on the progress of this car and

383
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:40,320
Speaker 2: how it was coming. Like this was not like he

384
00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:43,160
Speaker 2: said something at an auto show once and then from

385
00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,080
Speaker 2: that point on it was kind of taken over like

386
00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 2: he had like some sort of hand in it, which

387
00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:50,399
Speaker 2: is just crazy if you think about it, because I

388
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:53,439
Speaker 2: remember being a teenager and hearing like, man, you know,

389
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Speaker 2: like the Volkswagen. It was like a like a Nazi car,

390
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:57,879
Speaker 2: the Beatle was or something.

391
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,480
Speaker 1: I was that teenager who owned it the time, so

392
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Speaker 1: it was a little okay.

393
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:04,919
Speaker 2: All right, I was the one throwing exit your car. Okay.

394
00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:08,880
Speaker 2: But you know when you hear those things, like in

395
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:11,560
Speaker 2: college or high school or something like that, as you

396
00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:14,760
Speaker 2: get older, you're like ninety eight percent of that stuff

397
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:19,560
Speaker 2: is totally wrong. It's just off. It's sometimes just totally untrue.

398
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Speaker 2: This is one of those rare ones that's not only true,

399
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,680
Speaker 2: it's even worse than it seemed in college.

400
00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:28,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were throwing exit my car and sucking down

401
00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:32,520
Speaker 1: your fan of orange.

402
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:34,280
Speaker 2: I was very confused at the time.

403
00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:38,080
Speaker 1: Yeah. So in nineteen thirty eight they built a factory

404
00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:41,159
Speaker 1: in Stuttgart to start building this car, like, you know,

405
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:46,080
Speaker 1: this tremendous you know, people's car factory. The original like

406
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:49,280
Speaker 1: off the line edition, like for real finally was called

407
00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:54,000
Speaker 1: the Volkswagen Type thirty eight KDF Wagon Big K, big

408
00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:58,960
Speaker 1: F little D. That stood for Kraft d'ur freuda, which

409
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 1: is strength through which is was a literal Nazi propaganda.

410
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:04,560
Speaker 2: Slogan because you associate joy.

411
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 1: They named their car often with the Nazis, for sure.

412
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Speaker 2: So their plan was this nineteen thirty eight. The plan

413
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Speaker 2: was to produce one point five million of those a year.

414
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Speaker 2: That is ambitious in the nineteen thirties, but that's what

415
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:21,879
Speaker 2: they were going for. They ended up producing two hundred

416
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:22,520
Speaker 2: and ten.

417
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Speaker 1: Right, not two hundred and ten thousand.

418
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Speaker 2: No, two hundred and ten two to one zero niner.

419
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:33,080
Speaker 2: And that's it. The reason why, in large part was

420
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:36,159
Speaker 2: because the war broke out in nineteen thirty nine. The

421
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:39,960
Speaker 2: reason the war broke out was because the Nazis started everything. Yeah,

422
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,840
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure no one forgets that.

423
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. And they immediately started sort of reconfiguring

424
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: the the KDF to suit their military needs. So they

425
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:55,640
Speaker 1: came out with different types of Type eighty seven, which

426
00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:59,160
Speaker 1: was a four wheel drive, and I guess that German

427
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,920
Speaker 1: officers would drive one. They had a Type eighty two,

428
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:07,679
Speaker 1: a Kubelwagen, a bucket seat car, and that was armored.

429
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,800
Speaker 1: It was on that Beatles Beatles like the band you

430
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 1: get it, m It was on a Beatle chassis, but

431
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:18,320
Speaker 1: it was armored and so therefore safe. And I'm sure

432
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:19,880
Speaker 1: some of the higher ups right around in that one

433
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:21,080
Speaker 1: for obvious reasons.

434
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 2: That one, very clearly to me, became the thing, the

435
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 2: VW thing.

436
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 1: Yeah. I knew one person in high school, Mary Francis Shepherd,

437
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,320
Speaker 1: had a VW thing, and I thought it was so cool.

438
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was cool, especially in high school. It

439
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:39,200
Speaker 2: takes some gall to drive such an unusual cool car.

440
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, I admit you were a little bit the same

441
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:43,639
Speaker 1: with me. I was the only person with a beatle

442
00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:45,439
Speaker 1: in my whole high school because everyone else wanted like

443
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:47,399
Speaker 1: a Mazar X seven or something.

444
00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:51,159
Speaker 2: Right exactly, Yeah, yeah, so that they also had a

445
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 2: modified version of the Type eighty two or Type eighty Yeah,

446
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 2: Type eighty two called the shwim Wogan the swimming or

447
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:02,640
Speaker 2: swimming car, and you could drive around in the water

448
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 2: with it. I saw a picture of some dude in

449
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 2: his vintage shim Bogan like in the water, and it

450
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,359
Speaker 2: looks so nerve wracking. Like the water the thing is

451
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 2: maybe eight inches above the water line. The rest of

452
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,920
Speaker 2: the car is below the water to comfort. Yeah, way

453
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 2: too close for comfort. Apparently it went six full miles

454
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,360
Speaker 2: an hour on the water, and there weren't very many

455
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 2: of those made, so I imagine that that dude probably

456
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:31,399
Speaker 2: paid a lot for that.

457
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably so. And I don't know if you can.

458
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 1: I doubt if you can still find one of these.

459
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: But they had a during the war, they had some

460
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,920
Speaker 1: gas shortages, some fuel shortages, so they developed a wood

461
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:47,439
Speaker 1: burning conversion kit for that cube of Bogan, so the

462
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: bucket see car. And you know, I'm sure you looked

463
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:52,199
Speaker 1: up pictures of this thing. It had a little you know,

464
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 1: round hatch in the front of the car. What do

465
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:59,360
Speaker 1: you call that the hood? Yeah, and you would open

466
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:02,880
Speaker 1: up that hat like a wood burning stove and put

467
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:04,680
Speaker 1: wood in there to power this thing.

468
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 2: That's how you remember, it's called the hood. That's where

469
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:08,160
Speaker 2: you put the.

470
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 1: Wood, right, that's right.

471
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 2: Those are slogan, and that would power the card, not

472
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:20,360
Speaker 2: through combustion, but through pyrolysis, where the wood was gasified,

473
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:23,200
Speaker 2: and then those gases would be transferred to the pistons

474
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 2: to make them go up and down, and then make

475
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 2: the wheels on the bus go round and round.

476
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 1: I didn't know that was even possible, not the wheels

477
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:33,399
Speaker 1: on the bus, but I didn't know that you could

478
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:35,240
Speaker 1: use wood in such a way to power a card.

479
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 2: It's kind of cool, yeah, and it did work, but

480
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 2: it didn't work very well. Yeah, to answer your question,

481
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:44,000
Speaker 2: I read some article on it, and the people said that,

482
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:46,399
Speaker 2: as far as anyone knows, none of those survived, so

483
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:48,200
Speaker 2: you would not be able to find one of those.

484
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:52,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, sadly. So. In the end, while they were pumping

485
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:55,119
Speaker 1: these things out, what they would use was force labor

486
00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 1: they had, and this is another horrifying fact of the show.

487
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,480
Speaker 1: They were for literal concentration camps and eight forced labor

488
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 1: camps on the grounds of the Volkswagen factory complex. And

489
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 1: that's just like, that's his not only was it a

490
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:16,159
Speaker 1: Nazi car, like they were exploiting labor to make them.

491
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it gets even worse because Ferdinand Porsche specifically

492
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 2: asked for forced labor to be assigned to build the

493
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 2: Volkswagens because he wanted to keep costs down. So you

494
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 2: put all this together, Hitler's directly involved in the creation

495
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 2: and manufacture of this car. They use slave labor and

496
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 2: concentration camps built into the automotive factory complex. And the

497
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 2: reason that they're using slave labor is because the chief designer,

498
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 2: Ferdinand Porsche asked for slave labor. VW eventually had to

499
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:52,360
Speaker 2: like face this as the world kind of continued on.

500
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:55,360
Speaker 2: People are like, guys, this is we have to talk

501
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 2: about this because this is not okay to just ignore.

502
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you wonder, like could they literally arrest

503
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: fer An end Porsche for this. He was held by

504
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 1: French authorities at one point, but he was not convicted

505
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: of a crime. But in the nineties, I think it

506
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:16,480
Speaker 1: was the early nineties, Volkswagen started a couple of different payouts.

507
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: They paid twelve million German marks deutsch marks, which is

508
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 1: about sixty three million bucks today to some of the

509
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 1: survivors who were those forced laborers from that factory. And

510
00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:29,400
Speaker 1: then about eight years later in ninety nine, Porsche actually

511
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 1: set up a fund even they were like, yeah, you know,

512
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 1: Volkswagen's taken all the heat on this, but it was

513
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:38,240
Speaker 1: really our guy, so maybe we should pony up some dough.

514
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: So they ponied up five million euros about ten million

515
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:43,760
Speaker 1: bucks a day to compensate some of those same laborers.

516
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,680
Speaker 2: Yeap. So remember they only produced two hundred and ten

517
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 2: of what became the Beatle What the type thirty eight,

518
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:52,960
Speaker 2: Is that correct?

519
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:53,880
Speaker 1: Yeah?

520
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 2: I think that was it, or the Series three, one

521
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 2: of the two. They only produced two hundred and ten

522
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,320
Speaker 2: of those before during the war they changed the whole

523
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,840
Speaker 2: VW factory to a defense vehicle factory. And then after

524
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 2: the war when they started to get back to business,

525
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 2: it was under oversight from the British authorities. So it actually,

526
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,200
Speaker 2: in a really weird way, was the Brits who first

527
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:21,639
Speaker 2: fully realized Hitler's vision for a people's car for Germany.

528
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,639
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was in their occupation zone, so it was

529
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: kind of theirs. I guess they renamed the factory to

530
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:32,879
Speaker 1: the Wolfsburg Motorworks because of the Wolfsburg Castle that was

531
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:36,399
Speaker 1: close by and that you know that. I don't know

532
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 1: if you would recognize it depends on how much you've

533
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:41,840
Speaker 1: been in like these old Beatles and Volkswagens, but a

534
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 1: lot of them, like later on would be like the

535
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 1: Wolfsburg edition, if they had a special edition of a

536
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: golf or something.

537
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 2: Even I know about that, Okay, all right.

538
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 1: Good, But they would have that little symbol, this little

539
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 1: castle with a wolf there on the center of the

540
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: steering wheel, just sort of an iconic logo.

541
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:58,479
Speaker 2: I haven't seen that.

542
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, you might recognize it.

543
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:02,640
Speaker 2: Maybe is it on the hood.

544
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is.

545
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 2: So with the Brits, they made twenty thousand of those things,

546
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 2: twenty thousand essentially Beatles in nineteen forty six alone, but

547
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 2: all of them were to be used by Allied occupation

548
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,720
Speaker 2: forces in Germany at the time, right, So they weren't

549
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 2: the people's car yet, it wasn't and I think the

550
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:27,680
Speaker 2: Brits ran it from nineteen forty five to forty nine.

551
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 2: In nineteen forty nine they finally handed it back over

552
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:34,760
Speaker 2: to the West German authorities, and in the interim, I

553
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,320
Speaker 2: think nineteen forty eight, they hired the guy who would

554
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 2: essentially be who you could truly call like the real

555
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 2: actual father of the VW Beetle, a guy named Heinz Nordhoff,

556
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 2: who took the control of this factory and like ran

557
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:52,480
Speaker 2: with it and introduced the Beetle to the world.

558
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he really ramped up production. He was

559
00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 1: a very experienced car maker. He made the car a

560
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 1: little better, I think, gave it a little more horsepower,

561
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 1: but you know that's that's not saying much because the

562
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: Beatle was never known for that.

563
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would actually cough sometimes, right.

564
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. He gave it hydraulic brakes, which is pretty good,

565
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: and chock absorbers, but again, none of that stuff was

566
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 1: like it was always a car that felt a little

567
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:19,640
Speaker 1: janky to drive.

568
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 2: I remember you talking about yours, and the heater was

569
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 2: redirected waste heat from the engine on your ankles, is

570
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 2: that correct. Yeah.

571
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: They just had these little events down on the floorboards,

572
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: and we call them ankle burners because it would just

573
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 1: pump heat directly from the engine right out to your

574
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: feet and it would ultimately heat the car, but it

575
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 1: would scortch the ankles.

576
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:42,400
Speaker 2: Was it bad enough that you could smell the hair

577
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 2: on your legs burning?

578
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 1: I didn't have hair on my legs then.

579
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 2: Okay, so, but it didn't have ac at all, did it?

580
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 1: No? I know that some of the super Beetles did later,

581
00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:56,120
Speaker 1: and I don't think my super Beetle did though, but

582
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,720
Speaker 1: my sixty eight definitely did not. It was two sixty air,

583
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: which you drive sixty miles an hour and roll down

584
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 1: two windows. Not a dad joka, that was a joke

585
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:05,720
Speaker 1: I heard.

586
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 2: Back then, Okay from a dad probably. So heinz Nordoff,

587
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 2: he comes in, he takes over and he's like, look,

588
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 2: there's a lot of stuff we can do. Like you said,

589
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 2: we can update the car. The problem is, we can

590
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 2: sell a million of these in Germany, but German marks

591
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 2: are so devalued right now because of the fallout of

592
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 2: World War two that we need to get some dollars

593
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 2: in here. And the way that you get dollars or

594
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,959
Speaker 2: start selling them in America. So he tried that and

595
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 2: it did not go very well at first, in large

596
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 2: part because America was like, that's a Nazi car and

597
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 2: you're probably a Nazi trying to sell us a Nazi car.

598
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 2: And by the way, your stupid Nazi car is ugly

599
00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 2: as sin. Get out of here, Nazi. Yeah, And Heinz

600
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 2: Nordoff was like, well, let's try this again in a year.

601
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's all it took. I think the first

602
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,640
Speaker 1: Beatle and it was just a single one that came

603
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:56,440
Speaker 1: to America was in nineteen forty nine. It was a

604
00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 1: Dutch car dealer named Ben Pond and he had to

605
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:03,320
Speaker 1: sell that thing for like whatever he could get, just

606
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: so he could go back home, like you know, Transatlantic

607
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,719
Speaker 1: sale back home that He's like, all right, I barely

608
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 1: sold the one car, so it's probably not a good

609
00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 1: idea to buy a bunch of these. But like you said,

610
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,080
Speaker 1: just one year later, in nineteen fifty, there was a

611
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: dealer named Max Hoffman, a foreign car dealer that ended

612
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: up selling three hundred and thirty Volkswagens to dealerships that

613
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 1: were selling Porsches and Jags other foreign cars. So it

614
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: fit in just a little better and doesn't look that

615
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:35,320
Speaker 1: much different. You know, those old bathtub Porsches, you know,

616
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 1: the design isn't that different than the BW beetle. They're

617
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: very round and sort of buggy looking.

618
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 2: That's true for sure. So I think in nineteen fifty

619
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 2: they sold three hundred and thirty of them. Yeah, in

620
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty five they sold thirty two thousand, six hundred

621
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 2: and sixty two of them. And one of the reasons

622
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,960
Speaker 2: for the huge leap forward, especially considering when the year

623
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 2: before they sold nine thousand, was that Volkswagen of America

624
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 2: was formed, so essentially an extension of the America conversion

625
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,720
Speaker 2: of Volkswagen was formed, and that really kind of helps

626
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:10,360
Speaker 2: streamline importing, setting up dealerships, moving cars to those dealerships,

627
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 2: getting car salesmen to step away from their chicken fingers

628
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 2: in the break room and actually go out and sell

629
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 2: the cars for once in their life. Yeah, that's really

630
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 2: all those factors put together are what helped them start

631
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 2: selling beetles like crazy in the mid fifties.

632
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:27,840
Speaker 1: Should we take a break?

633
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 2: Sure?

634
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: All right, good, because I got a cliffhanger. A very

635
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 1: key thing happened in the mid fifties to really ramp

636
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 1: up sales of these. We'll talk about that right after this.

637
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 2: So, Chuck, you left everybody hanging. You said that you

638
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 2: had a Cliffhanger about something that happened in the fifties

639
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:10,440
Speaker 2: that really kind of revd the beadle up into hyper drive,

640
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 2: which I think is a thing.

641
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:15,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I said mid fifties, it was really nineteen

642
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:19,840
Speaker 1: fifty nine. And anyone that has been around the advertising

643
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,440
Speaker 1: industry or even knows a little bit about it or

644
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 1: watch mad Men, knows that there was a series of brilliant,

645
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 1: brilliant ads brought forth by the DDB and almost aid

646
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:37,600
Speaker 1: insurance agency ad agency that I hate to say this,

647
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: but they leaned into what people didn't like about the

648
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:45,520
Speaker 1: Volkswagen and tried to make that a selling point, and

649
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,320
Speaker 1: they did so to tremendous success.

650
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:54,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a real game changer. Yeah. So this

651
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,920
Speaker 2: I mean, like everybody in advertising knows about this, and

652
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,439
Speaker 2: a lot of people outside of advertising know about because

653
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 2: it's just talked about so much. And the reason why

654
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:06,360
Speaker 2: it was a great ad campaign just visually speaking, they

655
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 2: used all sorts of different techniques that were very much

656
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 2: different than than what you would normally find to sell

657
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 2: American cars, which were huge land yachts at the time.

658
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:19,920
Speaker 2: This is the I think the first compact car that

659
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:24,839
Speaker 2: America ever encountered, but like you said, they they really

660
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:27,760
Speaker 2: kind of took some of the criticisms of the Beatle

661
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 2: and turned them into selling points. One of the first

662
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:33,359
Speaker 2: things they said was that it's ugly, but it gets

663
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:36,200
Speaker 2: you there. So this this was just one example of

664
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 2: what came to be called an anti ad campaign. It

665
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 2: was like the what was that Paul Reiser movie from

666
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 2: the eighties where he like just turns the ad world

667
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,239
Speaker 2: on its head by just speaking the truth about the

668
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:54,400
Speaker 2: products he's selling, you know, the one? No, yeah, what

669
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,839
Speaker 2: it was like an ad for Volva was there. They're

670
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:58,360
Speaker 2: boxy but they're good.

671
00:35:58,760 --> 00:35:59,799
Speaker 1: I don't remember that movie.

672
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,400
Speaker 2: I can't remember what it was called. It doesn't matter,

673
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 2: but it was basically a movie based on this, even

674
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:09,440
Speaker 2: though they would it was never to be like a

675
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:11,680
Speaker 2: fictionalized version of it. They just I think it gave

676
00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:13,760
Speaker 2: the screenwriter an idea, is what I'm saying.

677
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:17,640
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll get you. One of the ads became, and

678
00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:19,440
Speaker 1: I guess it was the most famous one. It's not

679
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 1: the one I think at first, but it was named

680
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:23,920
Speaker 1: ad of the Century by ad Age. It was it

681
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 1: just said think small. And the one I remember most

682
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 1: specifically was and not by seeing it you know, live

683
00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 1: obviously because this was before my time. But I just

684
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:36,480
Speaker 1: remember seeing I guess reading about or something. But it

685
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:39,239
Speaker 1: was just a picture of the VW Beetle and it

686
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: said Lemon underneath it. Oh yeah, yeah, which Lemon is,

687
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:47,880
Speaker 1: you know, a car that's kind of sucks.

688
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:49,839
Speaker 2: Right, So I'm not sure what they were going for

689
00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 2: with that. Can you explain?

690
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:53,440
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. I mean the same as the

691
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 1: other ones that say ugly is only skin deep. You know,

692
00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:00,360
Speaker 1: they were just sort of playing upon people it was

693
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: ugly or saying it was you know, I don't know

694
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:04,920
Speaker 1: if people were saying it was a quality car, because

695
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,759
Speaker 1: Lemon definitely indicates like it doesn't run well. So that

696
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:13,319
Speaker 1: was a real sort of extra brave, I think, even

697
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 1: compared to the rest.

698
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,480
Speaker 2: I mean even I don't get that one at all.

699
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:19,360
Speaker 2: It doesn't make any sense to me. I'll have to

700
00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:20,799
Speaker 2: go look further into it.

701
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 1: What's your search, norm? Can someone explain to me why they.

702
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:29,919
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll write it out exactly like that.

703
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:32,160
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I don't think it's that much different

704
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 1: than saying it's ugly.

705
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:35,840
Speaker 2: No, it is, because ugly, it's like, that's all just

706
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 2: a point of view it's it's subjective and really, ultimately,

707
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:41,919
Speaker 2: if the car runs, well, a lot of people don't

708
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:45,319
Speaker 2: care what it looks like a lemon. Everyone cares that

709
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 2: the car is not going to run. Well, it does not.

710
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 2: It makes no sense to me whatsoever, But I'll figure

711
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 2: it out on all report back. How about that?

712
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:54,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, well maybe that's why I remembered it because it

713
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 1: didn't make.

714
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:57,680
Speaker 2: Any sense, right, But yeah, and I guess you ended

715
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 2: up buying one, so there you go. Uh, well, my

716
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:02,560
Speaker 2: favorite one was lived below your means.

717
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: That's pretty fun. But who wants to do that?

718
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,320
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you who wants to do that. People

719
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:10,240
Speaker 2: who essentially were the basis of the counterculture, the people

720
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:13,759
Speaker 2: who were the beats a few years earlier, sorted to

721
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,480
Speaker 2: grow up, started to go to college, were very highly educated,

722
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:19,440
Speaker 2: but still did not want to follow in the exact

723
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 2: steps of their parents, and the beetle kind of gave

724
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:25,760
Speaker 2: them a well, a vehicle out of their parents' shadow

725
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 2: to kind of forge their own path. It was basically

726
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 2: a finger to the crew cut. Buying a Beetle was

727
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 2: in the early sixties.

728
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:36,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's very weird that my parents bought one

729
00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 1: brand new in sixty eight because they were not that

730
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: at all. My dad was the crew cut like literally, yeah,

731
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:45,840
Speaker 1: And I don't know, they weren't counterculture, like I have

732
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:47,840
Speaker 1: no idea. Maybe, I mean, maybe my mom thought it

733
00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:50,759
Speaker 1: was cute, maybe my dad did. I have no idea.

734
00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:52,360
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to ask my mom about that. But

735
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:57,359
Speaker 1: cost wise, it's probably because of the cost, because they

736
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of money, and in nineteen sixty four,

737
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:03,040
Speaker 1: you could get a Beetle for one five hundred and

738
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:06,520
Speaker 1: sixty five bucks compared to about twenty four hundred four

739
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:09,080
Speaker 1: Ford Mustang at the time, or close to seven grand

740
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: for a convertible Lincoln Continental. So it was definitely affordable

741
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:15,279
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that's probably why they got it.

742
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so they started selling a ton of these things.

743
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:21,279
Speaker 2: In nineteen sixty eight, they sold four hundred and twenty

744
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:24,360
Speaker 2: thousand just in America, and by this time, by this

745
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,520
Speaker 2: year around the world, it was the best selling car

746
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 2: in the world. This was twenty years after Heinz Nordoff

747
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:37,359
Speaker 2: took over. So we went from essentially this Nazi car

748
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:41,720
Speaker 2: to the best selling car in the world in two decades,

749
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:43,480
Speaker 2: which is quite a feat.

750
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, just a year after that, it got

751
00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:48,319
Speaker 1: a big bump when Disney came out with the love

752
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:51,359
Speaker 1: Bug movies. The initial one was just the love Bug

753
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 1: and Herbie, of course, was the name of that sixty

754
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:56,759
Speaker 1: three beetle that If you haven't seen those movies, they're

755
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:59,759
Speaker 1: like those sixties early seventies Disney movies are kind of fun,

756
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:03,280
Speaker 1: but they're not great. But Herbie was definitely a lovable car.

757
00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:06,279
Speaker 1: And you can still see Herbie versions driving around with

758
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:10,760
Speaker 1: the two off center stripes. Yeah, and whatever the number

759
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:13,800
Speaker 1: in the circle was, I can't remember what it's racing number.

760
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:15,879
Speaker 2: Was, sixty three or fifty three.

761
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:18,680
Speaker 1: Well, it was probably sixty three because it was a

762
00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 1: sixty three Beatle.

763
00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:24,680
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Okay, I'm more of a Snowball Express man myself.

764
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen that one? No, it's a good one. Okay, okay,

765
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:30,480
Speaker 2: just check that one out and thank me later.

766
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 1: I bet this stuff is all on the Disney app

767
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:35,480
Speaker 1: don't they have all their classics on there.

768
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 2: Snowball Express for sure, watch that one and then watch

769
00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:40,080
Speaker 2: the North Avenue Irregulars.

770
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:41,719
Speaker 1: Those are but I do remember that one. I love

771
00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:42,240
Speaker 1: that movie.

772
00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:44,799
Speaker 2: Okay, So if you love North Avenue Regulars, there's a

773
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 2: good chance you're going to like Snowball Express, I guarantee it.

774
00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 1: One thing about the movie, though, was it was a

775
00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 1: It wasn't a radio controlled car, like it's driving around

776
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:57,279
Speaker 1: by itself. That's whole concept that this is a car

777
00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:59,759
Speaker 1: is kind of alive. And you might think, oh, cool,

778
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:02,640
Speaker 1: they figured out how to remote control this car. It

779
00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: was actually a movie making trick where they have somebody

780
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:08,799
Speaker 1: down out of view of the windows, kind of in

781
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:10,920
Speaker 1: the back seat, like a stunt driver driving that thing.

782
00:41:11,239 --> 00:41:13,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we say that because there's a bunch of

783
00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:15,240
Speaker 2: people on the internet saying this is, what's the world's

784
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:17,880
Speaker 2: first self driving car? And they're just wrong, wrong, wrong.

785
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't know that people claim that.

786
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, wrongly? What about what about Mexico? Chuck, because it

787
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:28,000
Speaker 2: turns out that Mexico and the beetle go hand in hand.

788
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 2: I didn't know that, though, Oh you didn't know that. No,

789
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 2: I mean, I know, I didn't. I'm not going to

790
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 2: even try to bs my way out of it. I

791
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 2: did not know that.

792
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 1: I am surprised that you've been to Mexico City and

793
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:44,120
Speaker 1: that you did not notice the inordinate amount of VW

794
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:45,160
Speaker 1: beetles driving around.

795
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 2: I just saw forest.

796
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:50,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I was kind of one of the

797
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:51,680
Speaker 1: things I was looking forward to when I went to

798
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:53,400
Speaker 1: Mexico City for the first time because I heard they

799
00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:57,040
Speaker 1: were just like VW beetles everywhere, and there are because

800
00:41:57,080 --> 00:42:02,239
Speaker 1: they were made there until two thousand three, which is remarkable.

801
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:06,600
Speaker 1: Like you can buy a two thousand and three you know,

802
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 1: final year edition Mexican Volkswagen Beetle. I went online immediately,

803
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:14,800
Speaker 1: and like you can buy one for like fifteen grand

804
00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:17,120
Speaker 1: that I saw that was looked to be in pretty

805
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:19,400
Speaker 1: good shape. And that's kind of all I want now.

806
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 2: Okay, good to know somebody's got a birthday coming up

807
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 2: in Yeah. They they actually the factory in Pueblo, Mexico,

808
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,840
Speaker 2: which was the first plant outside of Germany, or the

809
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:38,359
Speaker 2: largest plant outside of Germany. It outlasted the one in Wolfsburg,

810
00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:42,800
Speaker 2: I think the one in Wolfsburg shut down or the sorry, yeah,

811
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,320
Speaker 2: the one it was in Stuttgart, the Wolfsburg plant in

812
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:48,759
Speaker 2: Stucart it shut down in nineteen seventy four, and like

813
00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:51,840
Speaker 2: you said, the Mexican plant kept going until two thousand

814
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:52,440
Speaker 2: and three.

815
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 1: So amazing.

816
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:55,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again they stopped selling new beetles in the

817
00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:58,960
Speaker 2: States in nineteen seventy nine. But Latin America is like,

818
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:01,800
Speaker 2: we still love them, so keep them coming Mexico in

819
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 2: Mexico staid right.

820
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:07,040
Speaker 1: On, Yeah, for sure. I mentioned earlier sort of the

821
00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,759
Speaker 1: dune buggy conversion that some people have done. The initial guy,

822
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 1: I guess, or I don't know if he was the

823
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:13,880
Speaker 1: first one, but the guy that really got famous for

824
00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 1: it was a California kind of car guy and racer

825
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:20,919
Speaker 1: named Bruce Myers, and he was a dune buggy guy.

826
00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:24,640
Speaker 1: He built a kit car using a beatle chassis and

827
00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 1: kind of reconfigured the shell. If you've ever seen like

828
00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:32,560
Speaker 1: Wonderbug the Sid Marty Croft show from the nineteen seventies,

829
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 1: it's that kind of dune buggy. But it was called

830
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 1: the Myers Manx, very very popular, especially in California. After

831
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:41,399
Speaker 1: he won the Baja one thousand and one of those

832
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:45,080
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven. And I went to the Myers

833
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:47,879
Speaker 1: Manx website. They are building a new one, the first

834
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:51,359
Speaker 1: one in decades. It's called the Manx two point zero EV,

835
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:54,560
Speaker 1: and it is did you see this thing?

836
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:55,840
Speaker 2: Yeah? I did. They're amazing.

837
00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: Oh man. I immediately was like, should I put a

838
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:02,479
Speaker 1: deposit down on this thing. It's like five hundred bucks

839
00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:06,360
Speaker 1: to put down a deposit, right, seventy four thousand dollars

840
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:09,360
Speaker 1: starting price. So I immediately was like, oh, I don't think so,

841
00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 1: all just admire them.

842
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:13,480
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah. They had another one. I can't remember what

843
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:15,480
Speaker 2: it was called, but it was like one hundred and

844
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:19,040
Speaker 2: twenty five grand starting or something. These are like these

845
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:23,399
Speaker 2: are like doom buggies, electric doom buggies essentially, and I'm

846
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,400
Speaker 2: not sure that they go off road. I didn't have

847
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 2: that impression.

848
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:28,560
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean I think it's gonna if

849
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:30,399
Speaker 1: it's a Manx, it'll it'll do all you want.

850
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, it's good.

851
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:33,359
Speaker 1: So it's got a pretty it's because it's so small,

852
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,160
Speaker 1: it's gonna have a limited range, like one hundred and

853
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 1: twenty five miles. But if you're a listener out there

854
00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:40,359
Speaker 1: and you end up getting one of these, I will

855
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 1: meet you wherever you are in the United States to

856
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 1: ride around in it with you. Oh cool, you go

857
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:45,359
Speaker 1: putting out that offer.

858
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 2: Right now, I think we should talk about a few

859
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:55,040
Speaker 2: a few stats, a few records that VW put out. Sure, Well,

860
00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:58,319
Speaker 2: one thing was that they they kept kind of upgrading

861
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:01,480
Speaker 2: or updating or tweaking the in all sorts of ways.

862
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:03,759
Speaker 2: But if you really look at the first Bug that

863
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:06,800
Speaker 2: came out in the forties and you look at the

864
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 2: Bugs that were produced until two thousand and three, they

865
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:13,560
Speaker 2: don't look very different. It's essentially the same car, which

866
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:17,399
Speaker 2: is why it's considered the longest selling car of all time.

867
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 2: It's the greatest selling of all time. I think they

868
00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:24,920
Speaker 2: sold a twenty one million plus Beetles over the production run.

869
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 2: But it's like it was essentially the same car, and

870
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:30,719
Speaker 2: so they would tweak it and release these limited editions

871
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:34,080
Speaker 2: once in a while. One was the Sports Bug, one

872
00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:36,440
Speaker 2: was a bi Centennial Bug, and then there was one

873
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:39,279
Speaker 2: that came out in nineteen seventy seven called the Champagne Edition.

874
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:41,680
Speaker 2: And I looked into these and it seemed like maybe

875
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 2: they had like a different exclusive paint color, or there

876
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:47,520
Speaker 2: was a slight tweak to the trim package or something.

877
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:50,600
Speaker 2: The Champagne Edition came with a coke mer and a

878
00:45:50,680 --> 00:45:54,160
Speaker 2: vacuum shaped metal straw, but other than that, they seemed

879
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:56,239
Speaker 2: like just regular Beetles. Yeah.

880
00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:58,640
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a convertible, but there were other convertibles.

881
00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:02,239
Speaker 1: I always wanted a convertible to because you know, back

882
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 1: in those days with the Beatles, it was just like

883
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:07,000
Speaker 1: a couple of twists of a knobs and then you

884
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:09,040
Speaker 1: manually just sort of threw it back over your head.

885
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:13,399
Speaker 1: Never was able to get a convertible, You're right about.

886
00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:16,759
Speaker 1: The body style never changed. The tail lights would change

887
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:18,319
Speaker 1: shape a little bit here and there, and that's kind

888
00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:20,239
Speaker 1: of one of the ways you could tell what year

889
00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:24,000
Speaker 1: it was. Okay, but other than some sort of headlight

890
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:28,359
Speaker 1: tail light stuff, it was basically the same shape. Even

891
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 1: through the Super Beetle. They might have been a slightly

892
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:32,799
Speaker 1: different shape. They were a little bit bigger, I think, yeah,

893
00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 1: but not much because I had a super Beetle and

894
00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:36,120
Speaker 1: it's not like it was roomy, you know.

895
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:38,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you had to be paying attention to probably

896
00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:40,920
Speaker 2: spot the difference between a beetle and a super Beetle

897
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,279
Speaker 2: unless they, yeah, park next to each other, you know.

898
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. But VW Beetle owners and are still

899
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:50,879
Speaker 1: very much known for being very into them and sort

900
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:53,440
Speaker 1: of knowing that kind of stuff is sort of like

901
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:56,840
Speaker 1: it wasn't just a car usually, it was like something

902
00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 1: that you adored and we're into and you could get

903
00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 1: parts cheap, and you know, generally work on it yourself,

904
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:03,600
Speaker 1: because when you looked at that engine, it looked like

905
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:05,680
Speaker 1: it had like nine or ten parts totally. Yeah.

906
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:09,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, And apparently VW dealerships kept all parts in stock

907
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:14,000
Speaker 2: from all years. Essentially they had huge, huge stockpiles apart,

908
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 2: so you could always be like, well, I can at

909
00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:17,920
Speaker 2: least go get this thing fixed pretty cheaply.

910
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:20,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, and we should probably close with a

911
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:24,600
Speaker 1: car that you owned, or at least a bought that thing, right.

912
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:28,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was Yumi's car, the new Beetle. Yeah, it

913
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 2: was cute.

914
00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 1: Didn't surprise me. It was super cute and it just

915
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 1: fit you mean to a t.

916
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,359
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, she would do donuts in that thing

917
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:38,839
Speaker 2: all day long. It had the best like turn radius.

918
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:43,000
Speaker 1: Oh really really, I mean yeah, it.

919
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:46,000
Speaker 2: Would turn fine. But she didn't actually do donuts as

920
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:46,959
Speaker 2: far as I ever knew.

921
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:48,640
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I knew that part was true, but

922
00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:53,200
Speaker 1: I thought it had like a noted turn radius or something. No, okay,

923
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:54,399
Speaker 1: you just got me on that.

924
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:56,320
Speaker 2: I did. But one thing it did have, Chuck, was

925
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:58,480
Speaker 2: a little vase, a little flower vase next to the

926
00:47:58,520 --> 00:47:59,719
Speaker 2: steering wheel. Do you remember that.

927
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very cute, and they I think they look

928
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:03,799
Speaker 1: pretty cool. I wish they would have made it a

929
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:07,880
Speaker 1: little more traditionally looking like a bug like. The couple

930
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:11,440
Speaker 1: of things that bothered me, and this is nitpicky as

931
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:14,759
Speaker 1: a beetle guy, was the flush headlights and the flush

932
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:18,800
Speaker 1: tail lights. I always love that they stuck out before.

933
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:21,919
Speaker 1: But aside from that, I think they honored it quite well.

934
00:48:22,239 --> 00:48:25,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did an update in twenty eleven that I

935
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:26,560
Speaker 2: thought was pretty cool too.

936
00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: I don't know if I saw that one. I'll have

937
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 1: to look that one up.

938
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 2: Okay, so you look that up. I'm going to look

939
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:39,879
Speaker 2: at the text of your square back Beetle station wagon. Yeah,

940
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:42,440
Speaker 2: I'm going to look up that lemon that confusing lemon

941
00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:45,400
Speaker 2: add okay, And there might have been something else, so

942
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:47,120
Speaker 2: I'll have to go back and re listen to this.

943
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: Well, I got one more quick little thing because if

944
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:52,680
Speaker 1: you have ever been in a Beetle or owned one,

945
00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: and this is something I didn't know until Day pointed

946
00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:58,880
Speaker 1: this out, there's a very particular smell that when I

947
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:00,800
Speaker 1: stick my head in a Beetle, it's just like it

948
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:04,400
Speaker 1: zaps me back. It smelled like no other car made

949
00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:09,720
Speaker 1: on the interior, and apparently that came from the cushioning

950
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:11,560
Speaker 1: of the seats. It was made out of coconut hair,

951
00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:14,759
Speaker 1: and I remember seeing that coconut hair like falling out

952
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:17,319
Speaker 1: from under my seats and stuff, But I never knew

953
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:18,880
Speaker 1: that was what the smell was due to.

954
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 2: Did it smell like coconuts or it just had this

955
00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:22,719
Speaker 2: distinct smell.

956
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:24,760
Speaker 1: Just a distinct smell. I think it was the vinyl

957
00:49:24,760 --> 00:49:28,080
Speaker 1: combined with that coconut hair. It was just super super distinct.

958
00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:31,799
Speaker 2: Very nice. Well, I guess, well, Chucks, do you have

959
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:32,439
Speaker 2: anything else?

960
00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:33,680
Speaker 1: No, that's it.

961
00:49:33,760 --> 00:49:38,400
Speaker 2: Well, since Chuck started nostalgizing, then he just accidentally triggered

962
00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:39,200
Speaker 2: listener mail.

963
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:44,320
Speaker 1: That's right. I'm gonna call this, I guess a follow

964
00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:48,960
Speaker 1: up on Madman Mounts because this is a pretty fun email.

965
00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 1: Hey guys, A big fan of the show. I was

966
00:49:52,160 --> 00:49:55,799
Speaker 1: very excited listening to the topic on eight tracks and

967
00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:58,840
Speaker 1: was thinking silently, they better mentioned months. They better mentioned

968
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 1: months because Earl Madman Muntz was born here in Elgin, Illinois.

969
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: He led a very colorful life, and his part of

970
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:08,719
Speaker 1: the A Trex story is only small portion of that wildlife.

971
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:12,440
Speaker 1: He was an innovator in giant screen televisions, cellular telephones

972
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:15,879
Speaker 1: for cars and satellite receivers. He started as a car

973
00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:18,120
Speaker 1: salesman and this is the basis of the typical crazy

974
00:50:18,280 --> 00:50:21,319
Speaker 1: used car salesman thing. And one of his slogans was,

975
00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:23,920
Speaker 1: I buy them high and sell them low. It's more

976
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:30,880
Speaker 1: fun that way. Don't tell missus Munts. And she pointed

977
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:34,520
Speaker 1: out he failed to mention what Missus Munds he was

978
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:36,240
Speaker 1: talking about, because I think he had seven wives.

979
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:39,719
Speaker 2: I think I saw that when we were doing the

980
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:43,759
Speaker 2: eight track research. What that ad no, that he had

981
00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:45,960
Speaker 2: had seven marriages.

982
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:49,320
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, you know, I'm not one to blame

983
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:51,200
Speaker 1: a divorce on a person, but if you've been married

984
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,120
Speaker 1: seven times, you may be the problem, you know.

985
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:56,920
Speaker 2: Sure he would.

986
00:50:56,680 --> 00:51:00,799
Speaker 1: Smash cars with sledgehammers, where a tricorn hat with red

987
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:04,280
Speaker 1: long John's So he was you know, he was supposedly

988
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,800
Speaker 1: invented the wacky car salesman guy routine.

989
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:07,839
Speaker 2: It's pretty cool.

990
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:10,759
Speaker 1: So mad been months will be the subject of the

991
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:16,520
Speaker 1: Elgin History Museum's podcast Echoes of Elgin on August first

992
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:19,080
Speaker 1: of this year. If you want to learn a little

993
00:51:19,080 --> 00:51:22,600
Speaker 1: bit more, and this is coming from Rebecca Miller, who

994
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:26,480
Speaker 1: is the museum educator at the Elgin History Museum.

995
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:29,400
Speaker 2: Very neat. Thanks a lot, Rebecca Chuck. I have to

996
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:31,400
Speaker 2: say I have a terrible feeling that we're going to

997
00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 2: get a lot of follow up emails saying it's pronounced Elgin.

998
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:36,080
Speaker 1: Oh is it Elgin?

999
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:38,520
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I could just totally.

1000
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:41,320
Speaker 1: See it all right, Well, just pretend I said Elgin.

1001
00:51:41,360 --> 00:51:44,120
Speaker 2: If that's the case, we'll have Jerry go edit hard

1002
00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:46,680
Speaker 2: g's into all the time, she said Elgin.

1003
00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:51,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, instead of giving her full read, I'll just go, yeah, Jerry, Yeah,

1004
00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:52,600
Speaker 1: just lace that in.

1005
00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 2: If you want to be like Rebecca and bring us

1006
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:58,760
Speaker 2: up to speed on somebody we just kind of mentioned

1007
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:01,680
Speaker 2: but really walked past. Love that kind of thing. You

1008
00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:03,720
Speaker 2: can do what Rebecca did and send us an email.

1009
00:52:03,920 --> 00:52:10,280
Speaker 2: Send it off to Stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot.

1010
00:52:10,680 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

1011
00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:17,839
Speaker 1: more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1012
00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:19,760
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.