I don’t know if I just got used to driving it, but never had any driving issues with my Bug (didn’t know about the axle).
Too bad the Corvair had to go to the Vega (ugh), which was almost as bad as the Pacer (IMHO ugly car - apologies to any that had and loved one).
My dad had a lot of friends who liked unusual cars. He, himself, was fairly conservative and cautious, the only time he went out on a limb with a car as a family man was a ‘66 Galaxie 500 7 Litre, beautiful car. He loved it, my mom was a little afraid of it after she spun it out leaving a carwash. Very high powered engine.
The swing axle was less of an issue with VW because people went into buying and driving a VW knowing it was different and appreciating that it wasn’t just “car” that you drove as you’d always driven. The air-cooled four was a much lighter engine, too, so the weight bias wasn’t as great. It was not a very high powered engine at all, either, they started out with like 36 hp if I recall correctly, so getting into trouble was much less likely. The Corvair went up to 180 hp.
Pacers? Sort of love-hate here. The later wagons didn’t look so bad. I have a soft spot for AMC, god how they tried with so little to work with. Despite it all, they came out with some interesting vehicles and a few great ones. Studebaker, I love them for the same reason. They had a few awesome ones.