The 1950s Beetle Redesign that Wasn't

[whc03grady]

More here.

[Kubelwagen]

I.... kind of like it!

[Amskeptic]

I am so glad they woke up in time . . .

The original VW design survived because it is truly one of the most brilliant designs ever to turn in 3-D. There is not one clumsy angle.
The '50s redesign suggested here has some . . . ungainly angles and weights that would have destined it to the same failure that greeted its peers.

[dingo]

i disagree emphatically...i like the design quite a bit... a few tweaks here and there and it could have exuded a sturdiness that the beetle never did, and the ghia only hinted at

[Amskeptic]

i disagree emphatically...i like the design quite a bit... a few tweaks here and there and it could have exuded a sturdiness that the beetle never did, and the ghia only hinted at

Ungainly! False curves! Truncated rear side glass! No balance! Dog haunches like an ugly Fiat on the side . . . whereas the sweep of the rear fenders into the deck lid of the real beetle is lean and gorgeous. The Beetle looks like nothing else because it has no stupid styling gimmickry!

[whc03grady]

Ungainly! False curves! Truncated rear side glass! No balance! Dog haunches like an ugly Fiat on the side . . . whereas the sweep of the rear fenders into the deck lid of the real beetle is lean and gorgeous. The Beetle looks like nothing else because it has no stupid styling gimmickry!

Agreed 100%; the redesign is gross. Somehow they managed to make it look older.
To say the Beetle (the real one) has no stupid styling gimmickry isn't to say it doesn't have style. I'd say the Beetle is in fact an excellent example of an early, restrained (i.e., Teutonic) Art Deco/Streamline Moderne aesthetic. Splitty buses are a late (very late) example.

Bay window buses (and Type 3s to a lesser extent) are pure neo-functionalist. Their similarity to the IBM Selectric typewriter is undeniable.

[Lanval]

And what do you make of the vanagon and other 80's abominations? I never was a fan of the boxy look ~ the Rabbit (best friend had a diesel rabbit all through college; other good friend had a ratty scirocco that he drove like a F1 racer) and the vanagon always have an element of Brutalism and/or socialist/communist minmalist/functionalist about them... but I still drive a vanagon because it's loads faster and easier to drive than the older VWs. (in all fairness, next car is either a restorable scirocco, or pre 73 914)

[Amskeptic]

And what do you make of the vanagon Brutalism and/or socialist/communist minmalist/functionalist about them...
but I still drive a vanagon because it's loads faster and easier to drive than the older VWs.

Spot-on. Brutalist describes the unyielding boxyness.
Colin