Description
VW Bug – Black and white 9 1/2″ x 13 1/2″ ad that was attempting to dissuade people from believing that the VW Bug was anything more than a Toy. The ad has a picture of a couple sitting and looking back at the camera from the front seat of a parked VW Bug with a Windup Key in the engine cover and the headline assuring that “It isn’t so”. The text claims that some proud owners have been putting a “winding key” on their VW’s and bragging to people that “they get 40 miles on one winding”. This, the ad insists, is not true but a VW Bug will get “about 32 miles (regular driving), and it requires one gallon of gas”. It reminds us that there is no radiator so no water to worry about and it also says that the “top speed and cruising speed are one and the same”. This will allow a Volkswagen to “run wide-open all day long without running up a repair bill”. It mentions that the cost for the car is $1,565 and it comes with everything that you might possibly want, “except possibly that winding key”.
Source: August 29, 1960 Life magazine.
