In the year 1938, Volkswagen launched Kafer. Now you might be having a question as what is this Kafer. Actually, this was the German name of Volkswagen Beetle, which was officially replaced by Beetle in the month of August, of the year 1967. Owning to its shape, it is fondly called Bug. Taking you back in the history, Hitler had asked Porsche designers to design a people’s car. The responsibility was laid on the shoulders of Erwin Komenda, who at that time was the main designer of the company. Because of its distinguishing design & also because of its less power delivering engine, the car was criticized a lot. But, if the criticizing community is kept aside, whose members were already very less in number then overall it was very well accepted & got a tremendous response.
It carries a record of the bestselling car, which has not been modified since its launch in the year 1938, on its head. In the year 1998, an upgraded version of the car was launched & it was different from the original one as in it, the engine is in the front & the storage space is at the back. The new version is a front wheel drive. After playing successful innings by launching Passat & Jetta, Volkswagen made the debut of this car in India. Only single variant, which has 2.0 liter 4-cylinder in line petrol engine, has been launched in India. To give a smooth maneuvering on the road, automatic transmission with 6 gears has been provided. Power of 115 BHP @ 5400 RPM & torque of 172 Nm @ 3200 RPM can be bubbled out from its engine.
We rate VW Beetle Car high in terms of acceleration as it takes 8.7 seconds only to touch the mark of 100 km/h. It can be driven up to the top speed of 180 km/h. It abides to the Euro 4 rules, which are very rigid in their own terms & thus gives a sober average of 10 km/l. It is the time of fast cars, which have aerodynamically designed streamlined body, but on the contrary to others, this car has curves & that makes it a designer’s delight. It has been coated with Zinc to prevent the occurrence of any kind of rusting, which normally appears when iron comes in contact with water.
The body parts have been designed with utmost precision & they neatly fits into one another. The car is very smooth & soft in nature & deserves only to be driven on smooth surface but in case if it is taken on uneven terrain then McPherson struts with the spring coil in the front & independent suspensions at the back are always there, ensuring that you always get a pleasant ride. Beetle, which we took out for today’s test drive is in its last phase as after this, company has planned to roll our new model, which has already been launched in the nations abroad, in the Indian market. The strategy adopted by Volkswagen, behind the launching of this car in India, is not to sell it to each & every person. But it has only been launched to build the brand Volkswagen among the Indian masses.
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