VW to retire its signature Beetle car, but give new life to the Bus

Time to say goodbye to a classic car—and hello to an old friend

Volkswagen is going to discontinue the VW Beetle, a classic car from the 1960s that the German car company revived in the late 90s. But never fear if you like classic VW’s because they’re bringing back the VW bus. And this one’s going to be all-electric.

Hi everyone, welcome to Plain English, special edition for car lovers this week, and appropriate, since there are lots of VW Beetles in Mexico and I’m in Mexico as you listen to this episode. I’m enjoying your capital city, one of my favorite places in Latin America. Let’s see, this episode comes out on Thursday. By the time you hear this, I’ll have been there since Saturday, so how many tacos al pastor, will I have had? I’m not sure I can count that high.

This is episode 89, so check out the transcript on the web site at PlainEnglish.com/89. The transcript is always free, so don’t be shy about checking that out and reading along as you listen.

VW to retire its famous Beetle

It’s one of the most recognizable cars on the road: the Volkswagen Beetle. But the German carmaker is preparing to retire the famous model after this year, citing declining sales.

The Beetle has been on the road since 1938, when Volkswagenwerk, then a government-controlled company under the direction of Germany’s Nazi party, wanted to introduce an affordable, popular car. After World War II, the company gained more independence and featured in Germany’s recovery from the war. For years the Beetle was the company’s only model. It was a huge success in Europe and later expanded to international markets. It became the most-manufactured car in history, with over 21 million of them made over the years. It was a quirky car—small, and it had its engine in the rear and the trunk in the front. It was popular with hippies in the United States in the 1960s.

But competition from smaller cars from Japan, and even other models from VW itself, drove down the Beetle’s popularity in the US. Production stopped here in 1979, though it continued in Latin America.

By the late 1990s, though, nostalgia was in the air, and VW rolled out a model called the New Beetle, which had a similar shape, but had all the modern technology. The car lived up to its funky heritage by coming in exciting colors and had some design flourishes, including a flower holder in the front seat. There was even a convertible option. This New Beetle had a good twenty-year run, but sales of cars are declining, and VW was only able to sell 15,000 of them last year. That’s not enough to justify a model’s continued production.

So for the second time, Volkswagen will retire the Beetle. The final model for 2019 will have a few special features, but there are no plans to make more beyond this year. In the US, at least, regular passenger sedans are fading in popularity. They’re being replaced by what they call crossover SUVs. Those are a little bit bigger than regular passenger cars, but smaller than full-size sport utility vehicles. They’re generally seen as safer and they get good gas mileage, so consumers prefer them to traditional sedans.

If you are a fan of nostalgic Volkswagen vehicles, you might shed a tear for the Beetle, but here’s some news to cheer you up: VW has plans to revive another one of its classic designs: the Bus.

The Bus—this, I can’t believe—the Bus is coming back. The VW Bus is this cute little van (they don’t make it right now), but it was this small, cheap, little thing and it could carry a large number of people. They didn’t go very fast. They weren’t very safe. But they were popular ways to transport lots of friends, long before the minivans of the 1990s. Like the Beetle, it was popular with the hippies and the 1960s counterculture. It had a youthful, unique shape and became something of a cultural icon. You still see them on the road in the US, but they’ve been out of production here for a long time.

Well. Volkswagen is bringing it back, new and improved for the 21st Century. It’s going to be called the ID Buzz; it will be all-electric and have all the latest technology. The car is designed to be as flexible as possible, with all kinds of different arrangements for you, if you want to carry a lot of people, that’s fine. If you want to clear out all the seats and haul cargo, you can do that. It looks cool; it’s boxy and looks sleek and modern. The Buzz will be on sale starting in 2020.

You can see an illustration on the VW web site that shows all the configurations of the Buzz, and the front seats even swivel so they face backward. So you can flip the front two seats around and make a little living room or meeting room back there if the car is parked.

It looks like it would be a perfect mobile podcast recording studio, come to think of it. You know, in case I wanted to quit my job, sell my apartment, and just drive all around North America doing the podcast. Well, I can dream, right?

Before we get to the second half of the program, I wanted to tell you a resource for learning English that you might like. This one is for those of you who are a little more advanced, but if you’re looking for a challenge, you might try listening to an audiobook in English. I’ve done this in Spanish, and it’s hard. But I know a lot of you are a little more advanced and might be ready for a listening challenge. Now, the biggest online seller of audiobooks is called Audible. And Plain English listeners are eligible to get a free audiobook if you sign up for a free trial subscription. Audible works as a subscription, so you have to pay every month. But they give you a free trial for 15 days, and in that 15 days you can download one free audiobook just to see how you like it. If you don’t want to pay for the subscription, just cancel it within 15 days—easy as that—the book is yours.

You can get that free book by going to PlainEnglish.com/book and that will take you to the page with all the details about the offer. PlainEnglish.com/book. Now I recommend you listen to a book in English—maybe pick one where you already know the story. I listened to Gone Girl in Spanish; I think it was called Perdida. I liked that one since I already knew the story, so it didn’t matter too much if I missed a few words. But there are books in your language there, too, so if you’re not quite ready for one in English, maybe you’ll find one in your own language. Once more PlainEnglish.com/book and you can see that offer.