Free Republic

Volkswagen has been thinking about bringing a compact pickup truck to the U.S., and it might want to hurry up. Custom car body outfit Smyth Performance has unveiled a conversion kit to turn a VW New Beetle into a pickup and it’s already the Massachusetts company’s best seller. According to Motor 1, the first 100 kits were sold out during a pre-order period at $2,990 a pop. It's compatible with the New Beetle that went out of production in 2011 and features an aluminum step side bed with a retro flair that suits the car’s styling. Smyth calls them "utes", using...

The oldest surviving sports car built by Porsche, and first to wear the brand’s name, is heading to auction this summer and expected to sell for a historic price. The Type 64 was the third of a series built by Ferdinand Porsche and his son Ferry between 1939 and 1940. Based on the chassis of the KdF-Wagen, which was also designed by the elder Porsche and would spawn the Volkswagen Beetle, the Type 64 was originally built to compete in a race from Berlin to Rome that was canceled after the outbreak of World War II. By then only one...

I prank, therefore I am Engineering students have pulled some amazing pranks over the years. But UBC's Golden Gate prank may have been the greatest everBy ERIN MILLAR -- Maclean'sAt about 3:40 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2001, a moving van stopped abruptly in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge. Although it was still dark, witnesses said they saw around a dozen figures emerge and push a large object over the side of the bridge. They then reboarded the van, and sped away into the night. Nothing to see here. Move along. A couple of hours later, as the morning...

Say goodbye to the love bug. The last original Volkswagen Beetle, the tiny car that became an icon of the flower-power generation, rolled off a Mexican assembly line yesterday. A mariachi band strummed as workers put the finishing touches on a baby-blue model marked No. 21,529,464 - the last of seven decades' worth of the beloved vehicles. "You didn't just participate in the construction of a car, but in the creation of a legend," Volkswagen executive Reinhard Jung told a crowd of workers. The last original bug will be shipped to a museum in Wolfsburg, Germany, home of Volkswagen's world...

Volkswagen of America Inc. on Friday offered the first official glimpse at the convertible version of its New Beetle. Volkswagen hasn't yet released pricing for the convertible Beetle, but it features the same rounded looks as its hardtop siblings, but with a fabric roof, and uses the same four-cylinder engines. Volkswagen has sold more than 320,000 New Beetle sedans in the United States since the car's 1998 North American launch. Built at the company's Puebla, Mexico, assembly plant, the Beetle convertible is expected to arrive in dealerships by the end of the year.