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 in Mexico accompanied by a Mariachi singing the song "Las Golondrinas" (A Mexican folk song that speaks of a farewell). This latter Beetle was headed to the port of Veracruz where a ship would take it to its final destination. The rest of the units, in spite of costing MXP$84,000 (a "Unified" Volkswagen Beetle cost MXP$69,000), moved very quickly from dealerships, leaving many people with the desire to own one of these copies unsatisfied. At this time, Volkswagen presented some advertising with a nostalgic tone. In some of them, they showed a small space to park, and many cars that tried unsuccessfully