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 to its original name of Volkswagen and the town was renamed Wolfsburg. The first 1,785 Type 1s were made in 1945. Following the British Army-led restart of production and Hirst's establishment of sales network and exports to Netherlands, former Opel manager (and formerly a detractor of the Volkswagen) Heinz Nordhoff was appointed director of the Volkswagen factory in 1949. Under Nordhoff, production increased dramatically over the following decade, with the one-millionth car coming off the assembly line by 1955. During this post-war period, the Beetle had superior performance in its category with a top speed of and 0–100 km/h (0–62