Bug - The Strange Mutations Of The World's Most Famous Automobile

By: Phil Patton .

The world's most recognizable automobile goes by many names. But did you know that the "Love Bug" was originally Hitler's "car of the people," that it was the Manson "family" car of choice, or that an Englishman attached a propeller, converted it into a "Water Beetle," and sailed it partway across the English Channel?

Phil Patton has written a kaleidoscopic history of the car that has held a place in our hearts since the 1950s. Bug takes us through the VW's quirky life, including its genius marketing strategy and designers' continuing obsession with its shape—the Bug, like the Parthenon, fits the "golden ratio" Greek ideal of dimension. "Think small," the ads proclaimed—and Americans did, buying Bugs in droves.

From the car's inception, its rebirth as the New Beetle, and its recent demise (the last Beetle rolled off Mexican production lines in April 2003), Bug is the incredible story of the automobile that became almost as famous as Mickey Mouse—and a distinctive part of the history of an industry and a century.

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