The end of the line?

Last year, sources at the VW factory in Mexico stated that the future of the classic Beetle would be secure until at least 2015 by which date the Beetle would be celebrating it's 80th birthday.

However, rumours are now rife that Puebla have decided to cease production at the end of the 2002 model year. In 1998 the factory said that the current ACD series 1600 fuel-injected engine would undergo one more upgrade to lower emissions. This has now been reportedly added to the 2000 model cars and is expected to be the final modification.
Sales of the Beetle in recent years have been in decline, with sales in 1999 amounting to just 36,000 vehicles. Volkswagen has always said that as long as the demand is there, they would continue to produce it.

The 'will they or wont they' debate about the end of production has been a popular topic over the past 20 years or so, with the final sunset over the Beetle on permanent hold. We sincerely hope that these reports, like many others in the past, are just rumour and not fact and will be doing all we can to find out what the position is. Watch this space....

Pete Frost