STRICTLY BUSINESS: BEETLE IS BACK AND CUTE AS A BUG

The Beetle is back!

The new Volkswagen is cute as a bug!

But, hey, where did they hide the motor? It's not in the trunk any more!

The new and improved redesigned VW was one of 30 new vehicles that debuted in the Midwest recently at the Greater St. Louis International Auto Show.

Needless to say, the Beetle drew a crowd.

The Volkswagen Beetle retains its "rainbow" shape. It also has the giant speedometers and gauges, bulbous fenders and built-in running boards.

But those likenesses may be the only things left of the little motorized bug that developed a love affair with Americans during the 1960s and 1970s.

The "new bug" features anti-lock brakes, side and front air bags, a heating and cooling system, and -- yes, fans, it's true -- the Beetle has a front-mounted, 115-horsepower, four-cylinder motor.

VW representatives agree the only resemblances to the old bug runabout is about "sheet-metal" deep.

The new Beetle is larger inside and out than its predecessor and costs more, with a base U.S. sticker price of $15,200. It could cost more than $20,000.

For more than 30 years, the Beetle went for less than $2,000

New water-cooled engine

The original bug's unconventional air-cooled, rear-mounted engine has given way to one of three modern water-cooled, four-cylinder engines in the car's front, to power the front-wheel drive.

The Beetle made its public debut at Detroit's North American International show in January.

About the same time, a group of Southeast Missouri State and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale students were having their first look at the VW Beetle, being manufactured in a factory at Puebla, Mexico.

"It's a totally new car," said Edwin Blanton, a junior marketing major at Southeast Missouri State.

Blanton was among the group of students from the university who visited the Volkswagen Beetle manufacturing plant. The Mexican Volkswagen factory remains the only plant to continue to produce the original Beetle as well as the only facility to build the new Beetle model.

"We weren't allowed in the plant last year, due to tight security," said Dr. Peter Gordon, director of international business program at Southeast.

In on the making

This year, the factory let the students tour the plant, on the same day an official unveiling was taking place at Detroit and at VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Southeast's Donald L. Harrison College of Business provided the opportunity for a group of Southeast and SIU students to travel to Mexico in January to learn more about the effects of the NAFTA Treaty on international business.

A portion of that trip was the visit to the VW plant.

"We were the only people in the plant without a connection to Volkswagen," said Gordon. "We met other students from throughout the world, but they were interns with the VW Corporation. We were the only `outsiders.'"

Students who particpated in the trip earned college credit either for UI343, "Transnational Cultural Experience," or MK483, "Practicum in Strategic Marketing." The Harrison College of Business sponsors the trip annually.

The VW Beetle -- the old one -- has an interesting story:

More than 4.7 million VW bugs were purchased by Americans through 1979.

The little bug was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler during the late 1930s when he suggested the manufacture of a "People's Car" to offer transportation for the German nation, modeled on what Henry Ford had done for America with the old Model-T.

Engineered by Porsche

The result was the Volkswagen, German for "people's car," which came off the production line in 1937. The VW was engineered by Ferdinand Porsche long before he built luxury speedsters. The first Beetle available for export wasn't made until 1946, following World War II. During the next 15 years, until 1960, Volkswagen produced chiefly Beetles, before getting in on the sports car line with the Karmin Ghia and VW van.

For years, the bug was the top import into the United States. It wasn't until 1975 that Japan's Toyota outsold VW in the United States.

During the late 1960s and into the 1970s, there were more than 500,000 Beetles on roads in the United States. Until 1962, many of the Beetles had a reserve tank switch for those occasions when the regular tank ran out of gas. After that year, the VW folks included a gas gauge in the Beetles.

Among those 500,000 rear-engine Beetles, which were so similar regardless of the year, were some "souped up" little bugs - Remember Herbie, the racing Disney Beetle?

Another familiar sight was the Beetles whose owners had installed a large key on the trunk, indicating they were a wind-up toy.

A popular little car

Worldwide, the Beetle remains the post poplar car ever made. Still, it limited production in Mexico. More than 21.3 million cars have been sold in 180 countries.

The last one designated for the United States was manufactured in the firm's German plants in 1979. They were killed in the United States by Japanese competition and U.S. EPA rules and regulations.

Since, 1979, Volkswagen Beetles were sold only in Mexico and Brazil.

Perhaps VW itself predicted the demise of the Beetle.

I can remember a 1963 advertisement in Time magazine. Most of the page was blank, with a small picture of a Beetle running off the page.

"Is the small car going out of the picture?" questioned the full-page ad. "They're growing the new cars much larger this season," continued the ad. "And, to think that only a year or two ago, it was the other way around."

Remember the reserve tank?

The VW saga leaves some memories: Some happenings you just don't forget ... like the true story of a pal and his first Volkswagen bug.

D.L. was proud of his brand new Beetle.

It was 1961, and D.L., a young circulation worker for a daily newspaper, had to make a 90-mile run through the hills of western Kentucky every afternoon, dropping off newspapers at towns along the route.

"Think of the gasoline I'll save," he noted. "And the little bug looks pretty good."

That was on a Monday.

A few days later, D.L. was late returning from his Kentucky run.

When he finally reported in, he complained that the Beetle had run out of gasoline a dozen miles from nowhere, and the long walk to a service station had left him bushed.

I asked a simple question.

"Was the reserve or auxiliary, tank out of gas too?"

He looked at me, very seriously, and little puzzled: "What reserve tank?"

That's discovering a great asset the hard way. D.L. found out later that the extra tank had been full.

B. Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.