Throughout most of the films he is distinguished by red, white, and blue racing stripes from the front to the back bumper, a pearl white body, a racing-style number "53" on the front luggage compartment lid, doors, engine lid, and a yellow-on-black 1963 California license plate with the registration "OFP 857".

In The Love Bug (1969), Herbie is bought from the showroom of Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson) by San Francisco socialite Mrs. Van Luit for her upstairs maid, but returns him shortly afterward due to reliability problems.

Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett), Jim's best friend, a mechanic and his housemate, names the car "Herbie" after his uncle, a middleweight boxer whose nose was shaped like the hood of a Volkswagen Beetle.

Jim notices the car's unnatural performance levels and decides to take him auto racing, to great success.

In addition, Jim pursues a romantic relationship with Carole Bennett (Michele Lee), an assistant in Thorndyke's showroom.

In the final El Dorado road race, Herbie is damaged and splits in two, but wins when the rear half (with Tennessee inside) beats Thorndyke's Apollo GT.

Herbie is also pursued by a pair of jewel thieves, Max and Quincy, who have hidden the stolen E’toile de Joie diamond in his gas tank.

After rescuing Diane and Giselle from a crash into a river, Jim and Wheely drive Herbie to victory, overtaking their main rival, Bruno von Stickle (Eric Braeden), on the ceiling of the Monaco tunnel.

They wreak havoc on board the ship Sun Princess, prompting the overzealous Captain Blythe (Harvey Korman) to throw Herbie overboard.

Herbie is rescued by Paco and disguised as a taxi, while they work to stop a gang of con artists from stealing a source of ancient Inca gold.

In this continuing comic-drama Jim meets a woman named Susan MacLane and her three kids, Julie, Matthew, and Robbie, who become friends with him and Herbie.

In the end of the film, Maggie becomes a NASCAR driver and Herbie builds a relationship with his new love interest, a Volkswagen New Beetle (which is revealed to be sentient as well).

The 1997 TV movie and Herbie: Fully Loaded featured major overhauls in appearance, as there were different production crews working for Disney by this time.

[6] In the original film, The Love Bug, the racing stripes differ from those in later movies; they do not cover Herbie's valances or louvers and the blue is a lighter shade.

All Herbies in The Love Bug had the VW badges removed from the hood and featured plain non-VW hubcaps.

In addition, they were applied over the valances and louvers, and the front hood was recycled for the 1982 television series Herbie, the Love Bug.

After the success of The Love Bug, it was heavily endorsed by Volkswagen, which was in financial trouble at the time, when Beetle sales in North America were considerably lower than in previous decades.

Post-1967 Beetles did feature the fuel tank accessible on the right side behind the fender; the silver cap itself, however, was fake and added for the film's storyline.

[7] In Herbie Goes Bananas, the hood-mounted light, the grey roll cage bar, the Monte Carlo racing stickers, and the silver gas cap were removed.

Herbie still had the gray bucket seats, asymmetrical door mirror and Goodyear GT Radial racing tires and rims.

The racing stripes were different sizes, and the shade of blue reverted to the lighter version of the original 1968 movie.