On 23/07/2011 17:29, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
Roger wrote:
I was put off Motoring Which by its first choice of best Buy - VW
Beetle. If I remember the timeline correctly that would have been the
1200 model with a reputation for poor handling and poisoning its
occupants with exhaust gases from the heater if it couldn't kill its
occupants in a more conventional manner. A car widely advertised at the
time as being reliable enough to be driven flat out (70mph) all day
which is not exactly surprising given the puny 34 bhp available.

William Boddy - the editor of Motor Sport for many years and a very
respected and knowledgeable motoring journalist - also very much liked the
Beetle in the '50s, and owned one. Most small UK designed cars of that
time would not survive being driven flat out for long - it was before
motorways. 34 bhp was about average for a small car in those days.
For such a dreadful car as you seem to think it remained in production for
a very long time and of course has a modern lookalike. Where is the UK
equivalent? The Mini came some 10 years after the Beetle.


There is no accounting for taste and I have no recollection of Bill
Boddy and Motorsport even though I read the magazine for many years.
However every dog has its day and the Beetle might well have been a
reasonable choice when the only practical alternative to a bubble car at
the bottom end of the market for new cars was a Morris 8 (E), A30 or sit
up and beg Ford but if my memory serves me correctly the Beetle was the
Which best Buy in the early 60s by which time the Mini and the 105E
Anglia (both introduced in 1959) were well established in the market and
even in the 50s a Morris Minor would have been a better choice for the
discerning motorist.

The Beetles antecedents are rooted in the late 30s even if the British
public didn't get the chance to own one until 1946 and the power output
of the early examples was even worse - somewhere in the low 20s IIRC.

--
Roger Chapman