Can you go fishing in a VW Beetle?

Is it true that the VW Beetle is so well built that it will float? Nat

Not so true that it would pass a seaworthiness test (don’t imagine you might use one to go deep-sea fishing)! but Beetles would certainly keep their heads above water longer than almost any other non-amphibious vehicle. 

That is in part because the very first Beetles were designed to be amphibious! They even had a fold-down propeller underneath their back bumper. And yes, they are built very well.

Their initial design target had military (even battlefield) specifications. That’s why they were given an engine over the drive wheels at the back – to improve traction in mud. 

Why they had smooth and full floorpans with no dangle downs and quite big wheels so there was nothing to snag or damage when off-road. 

Why the engines were air-cooled, so they could not be disabled by a bullet in the radiator. Why they were shaped like an armour-plated tortoise. Why the front seat adjustment allowed more leg-room and head-room than a Rolls Royce.

Why they were given a robust power unit that could go all day at 100 kph. Why that engine would run well enough on impure or mixed fuels! 

But the base model was also very popular with civilians, and the KJ became the VW (Volkswagen, the people’s car) and a best-seller…until their factory was bombed in World War II.

At the end of the war, industry was reconstructed under the Marshal Plan by selling much-needed but not-yet built VWs to the public in advance. You paid and waited for your money to first construct the factory that would make your car.  Tens of thousands did.

The wider world soon joined the queue, the VW became the Beetle, and the car was designed and built so well it became and all-time best-selling global legend. 

The fit and finish was (and remained) so precise that it was so airtight that owners had to wind a window down a bit to close the doors!  

Part of the legend tells the story of an argument between a Brit and a German about how airtight the Beetle was. To test it they put a cat in a Beetle and another in a Land-Rover, closed the windows and locked the doors. By the following morning, the cat in the Beetle had asphyxiated. The cat in the Land Rover had escaped.

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