What’s With All The Beetles?
Day one in Peru. An unusual number of Volkswagen Beetles appear on the streets.
Day two, the number is only increasing.
By day 10 we’ve seen a couple dozen. By day 30 we’ve tallied into the hundreds. Every street we walk down there’s a Beetle. We began to wonder what the deal was!
Do the Pervuians have a love affair for a car many see as quintessentially German? We set out to investigate.
This post provides a brief history of the Peruvian Beetle story, with plenty of snaps I took along the way.
Beetle Backstory
While we all consider the iconic Volkswagen Beetle to be German designed and constructed, it turns out that a vast number were actually built in South America, mainly in Brazil and Mexico.
Back in the 50s (1953 to be precise) Brazil started importing parts (up to 60%) from Germany. There was significant demand for the car across the country.
Within a decade, however, Brazil had reduced its dependency on Germany significantly, manufacturing 99% of the parts on home soil. The German Beetle was quickly becoming something of a South American success story.
22% of all Volkswagen Beetles were manufactured in South America
Beetle Popularity In Latin America
Construction went from strength to strength for over four decades and by the time production ended (Brazil in 1996 and Mexico in 2003) 22% of all Beetles had been made across the South American continent.
And this leads us to the present day. Over three million vehicles have been constructed in South American countries. And with Peru being relatively close to the manufacturing hub of Brazil, it appears many Peruvians jumped at the chance to get their hands on one of these iconic vehicles.
During my research I have learnt that Beetles are pretty easy to mend. There are less complicated electrical components than other cars, and there’s clearly plenty of spare parts knocking around. South Americans consider them to be reliable and, in a culture that prefers to fix and maintain than throw away and buy anew, it’s clearly the perfect type of car to have on the driveway.
Beautiful Beetles
I am not a car enthusiast by any means, but it has to be said that I have really enjoyed seeing these cute and colourful cars dotted throughout our time exploring Peru. They are beautifully designed and incredibly aesthetic, matching the colour and vibrant personality of Peru that I so love.
I now immediately associate Beetles with Peru, in the same way I do Inca Cola!
Until next time,
Lica xoxo
