On January 17, 1934, Ferdinand Porsche wrote his "Exposé regarding the construction of a German People's Car". In his opinion, a people's car, or Volkswagen, should be a fully adequate and reliable automobile, although with a comparatively light construction style. It should offer room for four people, reach speeds of up to 100 km/h and be able to overcome gradients of 30 percent.The first prototype of the sedan was completed on February 5, 1936.

On Wednesday July 30th 2003 the last Beetle left the production line at Volkswagen de México in Puebla. The Mexican workforce gave a festive farewell for the 21,529,464th Beetle with flowers and mariachi music. The best-selling model will now make a last journey over the Atlantic to Wolfsburg where it will have a place of honour in the Automuseum.

On Saturday December 31st 2005 the last air-cooled engine left the production line at Volkswagen Brasil. The engine was mainly unchanged since the very early days of production but sported electronic fuel injection and a catalytic convertor. New Brazillian pollution laws that come into effect in 2006 saw the end of the air-cooled flat four from VW. Whilst the Kombi will still look like the classic Type 2 it will now sport a water-cooled engine.

This is also a census of all air-cooled Volkswagens and derivatives - if it started life as an air-cooled VW, list it here.

It now seems fitting that a census of all surviving VWs be made. If you currently own an air-cooled VW (or VW based vehicle), please add your vehicle to the database. It is our hope that people will be able to search for the car they owned as a teenager, courted their partner in, learnt motor mechanics with or even the car they were conceived in ;)

Please note that we are not connected to the previous Beetle Census, and as such cannot and will not answer any questions regarding the previous census.