Beetles reunion

Even in Mexico, it’s uncommon to see a tripleheader of Volkswagen Beetles waiting at the same traffic light, despite the “Vocho’s” assured status as a Mexican icon. I grabbed a photo of these three at an intersection along a Puerto Vallara boulevard during last week’s Hemmings Cruise to Mexico. A visual guesstimate on their vintage is around 1980, given their four rows of rear cooling louvers, the relocation of the fender-top turn indicators (into the front bumper, beginning in 1977), and conventional German-style stamped steel wheels.

The Beetle’s evolution into a Mexican-built motorcar began in 1961, when the first CKD kits from Germany were assembled in a local Studebaker-Packard plant. Volkswagen opened its own assembly factory the following year in Xalostoc, then began producing Beetles at its new, much larger Puebla plant in 1967. In Mexico, the Vocho kept rolling until 2003, with one of the last examples given to Pope John Paul II as a gift. Later Mexican Beetles achieved a sophistication unknown north of the border, acquiring Digifant-injected 1.6-liter power, front disc brakes and retro appearance options. A lot of things about driving in Mexico are improvised; note that the white car’s Jalisco license plate is hastily wired around its rear bumper.