An ode to Mr. Ben Pon

A simple pencil drawing on a tiny piece of paper, made in April,1947. You probably know the story, right after the war the VW beetle was a big succes when Dutch VW Importer Ben Pon (imperialvw.com) had a chat with the Wolfsburg guys during a factory visit and showed them what his market needed. A beetle chassis with a roomy box on top. He suspected that crowds of small dutch entrepeneurs badly needed this. The room to move stuff pluss the low cost, the ease of maintenance and durability of the aircooled concept would be an instant succes. It took a few years but finally The Volkswagen management got convinced and bought the idea and in 1950 the VW bus was born. The rest is history (the Truth about Cars) . Not too many of you will know, but the the son of the original bus - the T2 - was still in production in Brasil, but as announced production will end now.... 63 years after its introduction in Germany, and 56 years after production started in Brasil. The very last edition is to be produced until December 31.  Sorry for being a bit chauvinistic, but we think Ben Pon made a big point back then. photo Volkswagen

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