The Love Bug (1997 film) Volkswagen Beetle. Herbie was owned by an egotistic racing driver and car dealer named Simon Moore III (John Hannah). Due to his arrogance, he does not treat Herbie very well. During a race, Simon Moore III swears at Herbie, which caused Herbie to not want to listen to his owner. They end up in last place for the race. Simon was not pleased and he throws out Herbie to the junkyard. Hank Cooper ( Bruce Campbell), a small-town mechanic who works in a local garage, enters a junk-car race where drivers select a jalopy and attempt to start and race
Volkswagen Beetle NSU-based and larger K70. None of these models, aimed at more upscale markets, achieved the level of success of the Beetle. The over-reliance on a single model, now in decline, meant that Volkswagen was in financial crisis by 1974. It needed German government funding to produce the Beetle's replacement. Production lines at Wolfsburg switched to the new water-cooled, front-engined, front-wheel-drive Golf designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro in 1974, sold in North America at the time as the "Rabbit". The Golf eventually became Volkswagen's most successful model since the Beetle. It was periodically redesigned over its lifetime, with only a few components