Learn the History of the 4-door VW Beetle

Whether you have a few minutes to spare and you’re looking to kill some time or you’re just interested in automotive history, Jason Torchinsky of the car-lover’s site Jalopnik has put together a wonderful but brief history of four-door Volkswagen beetles that you should take a few minutes to read through. It’s an intriguing story, and you might be surprised to learn just how many other manufacturers have worked with VW to produce those 4-door beetles. Check it out below:   Yesterday, we reported that Volkswagen was either toying with the idea of a new, rear-wheel-drive electric four door Volkswagen Beetle, or our emotions, or both. Interestingly, the most interesting part of that is the four-door aspect, because there has never been an official four-door Beetle. There’s been some sort-of close attempts, which you now have to sit down and learn about because it’s mandatory. The most important thing to realize is that, for whatever reason, Volkswagen in the air-cooled era was just not that into four-door cars. The first four-door car Volkswagen built was actually built before they were really Volkswagen as we know the company, and was the second car they ever designed: the wartime Kubelwagen, based on the KdF Wagen (you know, the Beetle) chassis. If we don’t count VW’s commercial vehicles and the passenger vehicles based on them, the Type 2 vans and microbuses, Volkswagen wouldn’t sell a four-door car until 1968, when they sort of went four-door crazy, in a very, very limited way: they introduced the Type 4 line, which included just one four-door option for what was supposed to be their large, upscale family car, and somehow they couldn’t even bring themselves to make the station wagon version four-door. Click Here to Continue Reading

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