New cars

[protege]

I mean half the point of an airbag is so you hitting the steering column in a crash isn't going to grievously injure or kill you.

Modern cars have steering columns that are designed to collapse in an accident. It's supposed to absorb the force...instead of staying taut and spearing the shit out of you. Even so, I really *don't* want to take a steering wheel to the face...and I'm sure nobody else does either. Trust me on this

Considering the fact that my dad, my cousin, and my grandmother all survived serious accident *because* of airbags, I'm all for putting them in cars. Granted, they were all seriously injured and required emergency care, I'd prefer that to the alternative.

[lordlundar]

The problem with the old style bugs is this:
rear engine
air cooled

OK, got that? I have no freaking idea what the fuck was going on in their engineers minds.

It makes them prone to overheating, and go through seals, combined with cheap seal materials available unless you want to dump serious cash into custom seals <shrug> Even as a non-daily ride, it was a hobby toy.

You actually answered your own question. The Bug was cheap. They could be easily mass produced, were a much simpler design and the materials were not as high quality as more expensive cars. This meant that the bug could be sold at up to half the price of the next expensive car on the market. To add, because of the simple design, it meant that parts were readily available and they could be repaired very easily and with minimal cost. These traits were even part of the marketing plan for the car which made it very popular with teenagers and young adults who didn't need a family sized car and were short on income.

[protege]

Of course, we take being able to easily get a car (for the most part) for granted. Not so in Germany between the wars. Cars, even the less-expensive ones, were still very much for the well-to-do, and even though German industry had recovered by the 1930s, cars were still out of reach for many families. Hitler demanded a vehicle that was cheap to build, could be easily repaired, and was affordable.

The rear engine and chassis design of that car was apparently the work of Hans Ledwinka (of Tatra fame). Hitler supposedly passed the ideas on to Dr. Porsche. We'll never know for sure, since all the parties are dead now. But, either way, VW did pay Tatra a settlement in the 1960s.

As for overheating, I'm not so sure that was an issue. Fitted with an oil cooler, the engines were very effective in Afrika Korps service. Later, it wouldn't surprise me if owners used cheap gaskets to fix their cars!