I seem to have opened a can of worms with this thread. My wife is of Jewish descent, hence I suppose her justified dislike of Beetles which she considers a legacy of Adolf Hitler, no Hitler, no Beetle she says.
My feeling is that as far as Beetles are concerned, the ultimate goal is to own one from before March 1948, built under British control, 'The Holy Grail' as they are often called in VW magazines. But maybe not one from before 1945, being the 'Nazi' car.
Rich posts here that displaying his 1947 Beetle at generic shows attracts no more attention than any other early Beetle. Does he clearly display the interesting English connection of this car? Stick a Union Jack somewhere on it, I would, and with the history written underneath for people to read once the flag has got their attention.
How many of these 1945-48s are in existence around the world? Never seen one for sale here since the one I regretably missed out on at Southerby's auction at Brooklands in 1999.
1956 VW Beetle, 1962 Morris Minor, 1968 VW Beetle (Old Blue), 1972 Morris Mini, 2005 MGTF
Blue, blue, Electric Blue, that's the colour of Old Blue!