The Love Bug brought to the United States, Walt suggested a different car story for him, which was "Car, Boy, Girl", a story written in 1961 by Gordon Buford. "Car, Boy, Girl;" "The Magic Volksy;" "The Runaway Wagen;" "Beetlebomb;" "Wonderbeetle;" "Bugboom" and "Thunderbug" were among the original development titles considered for the film before the title was finalized as "The Love Bug." Herbie competes in the Monterey Grand Prix, which, except for 1963, was not a sports car race. The actual sports car race held at Monterey was the Monterey Sports Car Championships. Peter Thorndyke's yellow "Special" is actually a 1965 Apollo GT,
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