Volkswagen Beetle in Mexico
The Volkswagen Beetle was introduced to Mexico in March 1954,[1][2][3][4] inside the exhibition "Alemania y su Industria" (Germany and its Industry).
An exhibition was held in the Ciudad Universitaria in Mexico City; during this event, the vehicles were widely admired by the public.
In response to doubts regarding the Beetle's long-term reliability, Prince Alfonso de Hohenlohe, descendant of a friend of Ferdinand Porsche and a car enthusiast resident of Mexico City, decided to enter seven VW sedans in 1954 Carrera Panamericana competition.
An expert mechanic from Houston, Texas, was asked to inspect the cars and certified that they had original, unmodified VW engines.
In June of that year, a six-month contract was signed with Studebaker-Packard de México to assemble the Beetle from CKD kits (“complete knock down,” or separated pieces) imported from Germany.
The following year, 1962, the first Volkswagen assembly plant was established in Xalostoc, State of Mexico, under the name PROMEXA (Promotora Mexicana de Automóviles - Mexican Automobile Promotor).
That year, the Volkswagen Sedán was selected by the "Departamento del Distrito Federal" to serve as a public transportation vehicle, thus becoming the standard taxi in Mexico City.
The 1973 model was highly popular, due to the previous year's improvements, as well as the new four-bolt 15-inch wheels (“small 4” as opposed to “wide 5”) with newly designed flat hubcaps, which replaced the original "bowl type" covers.
Inside, a matte black padded dashboard was introduced, resulting in greater comfort and less eye fatigue.
The different engine cover made it similar to German-produced VW 1200, as well as Mexican market Beetles sold before 1970.
In 1981, the Volkswagen (the manufacturer's model name from this point forward) came equipped with front seats that integrated headrests as a required safety feature and new cloth upholsteries.
The new seats had the same design as the Volkswagen Type 3 and bus vehicles previously seen in Europe and the United States in the late 60s.
For the 1983 model year, the Volkswagen received new front seats with adjustable headrests, already seen in cars such the Caribe and the Atlantic.
The sides and door panels were white; however, elements such as the dashboard, the armrests, the rear ashtray and the interior rubber mat keep its typical black color.
This was the first Volkswagen available in Mexico in many years painted in black; besides this special painting, this new Limited Edition had chrome hub caps (the norm in the 80's were matt finished hub caps), inside it had seats upholstered in a honeycomb black and white design with Recaro headrests, plus an AM/FM stereo cassette player radio (usually the only audio equipment available on Mexican Beetles were the eternal Sapphire XI AM monoaural radio) with two speakers and a basket below the dashboard, as well as side and rear special badges.
They were sold in either LHD or RHD layouts and customisation packages making each car different depending on who purchased it new.
This proved to be a successful advertising campaign for Wheeler International Ltd and created a lot of interest from buyers who had previously owns a Beetle in their teens and wanted to relive the experience in a brand new car.
[citation needed] For the 1989 model year, and in part because of a government decree that required the company to cut the retail price and tax reduction, the Mexican Beetle was relaunched as the Volkswagen Sedan.
This new limited edition was characterized by its side and rear anagrams "21 Million", its chrome wheel caps, and tinted windows.
Inside, this new model had a light grey velour upholstery with stripes in discrete colors, and an AM/FM stereo cassette player audio system.
An electronic ignition system was introduced, and the engine also received hydraulic lifters and a spin-on oil filter.
This year appeared, in addition to the anti-theft alarm and with the intention of lowering the high index of thefts and therefore, the extraordinarily expensive premiums of insurance policies, the Transponder, a device with an entry located in the dashboard, which allows the ignition and operation of the car.
In 2000, to commemorate the new millennium, two new Limited Editions were launched: The 2001 model year saw new "tattoos" on windows, exterior mirrors and rear lights, in order to prevent the theft of these parts when the car was parked.
In March 2003, the end of the Vocho production was announced, due to the gradual and continuous decline in demand for this model, which began with the introduction of the Chevrolet Pop (Opel Corsa B) in Mexico produced by General Motors in 1997.
The Pop replaced the Volkswagen Beetle in its first place on sales in Mexico by offering modernity at a price just a little higher than the Vocho.
However, the Volkswagen Beetle kept being the Mexican taxi driver favorite, until, in 2002, a decree emerged under the mandate of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, then Mexico City's governor.
This decree prohibited the granting of permits for public transportation in the form of taxis in Mexico City to two-door cars, restricting even more the marketing of the Vocho in favor of the Nissan Tsuru (third generation Nissan Sentra), which now became the new favorite of taxi drivers in Mexico, causing sales of the Vocho to fall even further.
One of the curious events that occurred was the fact that a group of owners of dealerships, in Mexico, came together to buy one of these cars, which was sent to the Vatican City as a present for Pope John Paul II.
Several units of the Last Edition Beetle were exported from Mexico to, mainly, North America and Europe, where it had become a cult car.
Today, a Volkswagen Sedan Última Edición, being the last representative of a lineage of more than 21 million units produced, has increased its value as a collector car at the international level, reaching figures of up to US$15,000 in resale.
