It was almost seventy years ago since Volkswagen has created the original Beetle. Volkswagen which means “people’s car” in German was set up by the Nazis to build inexpensive cars for the German public.

It was Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, a brilliant designer who was tasked of creating a car that could carry two adults and three children costing only less than £50 which was then only half the price of other cars available on the market.

Adolf Hitler has given the go signal for the production of the Beetle in 1936. Unfortunately before production can commence, the World War II broke out and VW’s factory in Wolfsburg has switched to producing military vehicles.

The VW factory was ruined during the war and was rebuilt under the guidance of the British Army officers headed by Major Ivan Hirst.  Ten thousand vehicles were then produced in 1946. Afterwards the factory was offered to the British carmaker Rootes which has declined the offer by saying that the Beetle’s design doesn’t possess any special brilliance. To cut the story short the Beetle later on was given the nickname the “Bug” and later on become an icon of the 60s and became the world’s best-selling car in 1972 surpassing the Model T Ford in 1972.

Production later on was switched to Mexico in the year 1978 where the last original Beetle number 21,529,464 came off the line in 2003.

And today, Europe’s largest will once again relive the glory of the original Beetle by building another no-frills “People’s Car” for the 21st century.

The small 111/2foot-long four-seater will be unveiled on the eve of the Frankfurt Motor Show. And like the original Beetle of which more than 21 million were sold it will also have its engine in the rear with luggage space under the hood.

The new Beetle will cost around £4,000 in China, India and other developing countries while in Britain and Europe the car will cost about £5,000. For the West the new Beetle is likely to be offered with a three-cylinder petrol engine while a two cylinder engine is scheduled to be offered somewhere else.

This new Beetle will be named Up and is likely to be offered in both three and five-door guises and believe to have a ultra-frugal fuel consumption of 100 miles per gallon.

There are also reports stating that Apple is also working on an intelligent version of the car complete with wi-fi internet access. The car will be called the iCar that is according to German language magazine Capital reports.

Although the said car is still being discussed the Sueddeutsche.de has already reported the possible cost of the iCar which according to them is 6,500 euro.

In the news: Volkswagen of America has recently released the results of their August 2007 Sales with 21,655 vehicles sold representing a decrease of 7.5 percent from their August 2006 sales figure of 23,420. On a year-to-date basis Volkswagen brand vehicle sales has dropped by 3.6 percent through August.

The decline reflects that rapid fall of existing 2007 model year inventory in anticipation of the incoming 2008 offerings.

The entry level Rabbit was able to sell 3,074 units for August 2007 which is considered to be the second best month ever for the reinterpreted hatchback model. Likewise the Coupe-Sunroof-Convertible (CSC) Eos has also recorded 1,161 deliveries and further gaining strength in the retractable hardtop segment.

It can also be remembered that last July in the 2007 Motorist Choice Awards given by PRIMEDIA’s InterlliChoice and AutoPacific, Volkswagen was able to obtain two awards.

The Volkswagen GTI was the top choice for the Image Compact Car Category while the Jetta won the Mid-Size Car category. The award honors the most satisfying cars and trucks that are also affordable to own. The winners were chosen based on a combination of IntelliChoice.com cost of ownership data and AutoPacific’s customer satisfaction survey data.

According to Matthias Seidl, Volkswagen of America Chief Operating Officer, “Both of these vehicles are very deserving of this praise. Our commitment to making the safest and best-engineered vehicles at an affordable operating cost has shown through with these great cars.”

Auto Pacific surveys 38 product-focused attributes, generating a score between five and 25 with a possible maximum score of 950 which is normalized to 1000. This score is then combined with IntelliChoice.com’s seven scored attributes such as depreciation, financing, fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs and state fees resulting to the final score and ranking of the Motorist Choice Awards.

Here is the complete list of the winners of the 2007 Motorist Choice Awards:

Aspirational Luxury Car:Lexus IS
Compact Car: Mazda Mazda3 Sedan
Compact Crossover SUV: Chevrolet HHR
Compact Pickup: Toyota Tacoma
Compact Sport Utility/ORV: Toyota FJ Cruiser
Economy Car: Honda Fit
Image Compact Car: Volkswagen GTI
Large Car: Toyota Avalon
Large HD Pickup: Chevrolet Silverado HD
Large LD Pickup: Chevrolet Silverado 1500
Large Luxury Car: Cadillac DTS
Large Sport Utility: GMC Yukon XL
Luxury Crossover SUV: Acura MDX
Luxury Mid-Size Car: Nissan Maxima
Luxury Sport Utility: Land Rover Range Rover Sport
Mid-Size Car: Volkswagen Jetta
Mid-Size Crossover SUV: Honda CR-V
Mid-Size Sport Utility: Toyota 4Runner
Minivan: Honda Odyssey
Premium Luxury Car: Lexus LS
Premium Mid-Size Car: Nissan Altima
Premium Mid-Size Crossover SUV: Nissan Murano
Premium Sports Car: Lexus SC
Sports Car: Porsche Boxster
Sporty Car: Scion tC

The Volkswagen Diesel Heritage Search is finally over after Volkswagen of America has located the Volks diesel with the highest mileage in the US. And the winner is a 1986 Jetta Turbo Diesel owned by Syl Schmid of Blue Rock, Ohio with over 562,000 miles traveled.

Volkswagen of America and Byers Imports has verified the authenticity of the incurred mileage of the winning Jetta. And according to the gathered fuel and mileage records presented by Schmid the Jetta frequently delivered fuel economy fifty miles per gallon.

And according to Steve Keyes, Volkswagen Public Relations Director, "Mr. Schmid has a story that is like so many of our diesel owners; he loves the longevity of the engine and fuel economy that his diesel Volkswagen has delivered these last twenty years. Throughout all of entries that we received for our Diesel Heritage Search, we found many VW owners who were passionate about their cars and the economic benefits of the diesel engine."

The owner Mr. Schmid has originally leased the Jetta for three years before finally deciding of purchasing the vehicle. Then after twenty years and over half a million miles he is still proud of his Jetta’s drivetrain and muffler.

Mr. Schmid will receive a Touareg V10 TDI to drive for six months. Volkswagen has started its Diesel Heritage Search last March 2007 and has attracted more than 200 entries for the highest mileage and oldest operating US diesel Volkswagen vehicles.

The 1977 Rabbit owned by Clint Wilson of Tehachapi, California was chosen as the oldest diesel Volkswagen.

Volkswagen starting from its introduction of the 1977 Rabbit which is the first Volkswagen diesel has sold around 815,000 diesel vehicles. Aside from the currently offered diesel Touareg V10 TDI, Volkswagen has also announced the arrival of the 2009 Jetta and Jetta SportWagen which is scheduled on later part of 2008. These new Jettas will be equipped with a Clean Diesel TDI engine option.