The Love Bug (1997 film) installment of the "Herbie" franchise, this film is part remake and part sequel, in that the events of the original 1968 film are repeated while the storyline plots to follow 1980's "Herbie Goes Bananas". It can also be thought a prototype of "" (2005), in that both show a later racer finding Herbie in a junkyard and restoring him. The film also marks the first new appearance of Herbie in 15 years, following the Bug's lone television series "Herbie, the Love Bug", which had ended after five episodes. The narrator, Jim Douglas (Dean Jones), unfolds the story of Herbie the
Volkswagen Beetle when the model was internally designated the Volkswagen Type 1, and marketed simply as the Volkswagen (or "People's Car"). Later models were designated Volkswagen 1200, 1300, 1500, 1302, or 1303, the former three indicating engine displacement, the latter two derived from the type number. The model became widely known in its home country as the "Käfer" (German for "beetle", cognate with English ) and was later marketed under that name in Germany, and as the Volkswagen in other countries. For example, in France it was known as the (French for ladybug). The original 25 hp Beetle was designed for a