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
The Love Bug a crash (and Tennessee turns his Edsel into a sculpture), Jim finds himself without a car and heads into town in search of some cheap wheels. He is enticed into an upmarket European car showroom after setting eyes on an attractive sales assistant and mechanic, Carole Bennett. Jim witnesses the dealership's British owner, Peter Thorndyke, being unnecessarily abusive towards a white Volkswagen Beetle that rolls into the showroom, and defends the car's honor, much to Thorndyke's displeasure. The following morning, Jim is shocked to find that the car is parked outside his house and that Thorndyke is pressing charges for