Customer Reviews

Small Wonder: The Amazing Story of the Volkswagen Beetle

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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Just what I was looking for, and then some. This book starts at the very beggining, with the Beetle's mentor and VW's founder Dr. Porsche. (Did you know he was Czeck?)
It follow's the company's history (which is to say, the car's history) with just the right amount of coverage to its amazing journey from WWII to the car's EOP (end of production) in Puebla, Mexico. The cronology of this book is excellent. Worthdly of a movie script, this book is extremely enganging. As you read its history, names like Ford, Peugeot, Renault amongst others keep poping up narrating each one's influence on the company's history. (Did you know H. Ford II was offered the factory, for free?)
The only thing that I'd wish from this book was to have the author do either a follow up or a revised update. This book finishes with the beetle's last production car, but the company has certantly not. I wish I could get more info from the company's developement from that point forward, including the launch of the new beetle among other superb new VWs...

Do you want to understand why Beetle was created by Ferdinand Porsche, why did the project succeeded after World War II, why Nordhoff stayed in Germany to raise the VW plant? Do you want to understand how this car came to USA and Europe, why this car originates the big corporation Wolkswagen is today? Do you want to know more about the Beetle spirit, why this "little, poor, ugly car" selled 21,5 million units around the world, over 55 years (from 1948, Germany, to 2003, in Mexico)?

I proudly present to you the most detailed and comprehensive source of information about Volkswagen Beetle ever written. This book has a dozen pages with pictures - all the others contains text, lots of text, with backstage details, deals and bets about Beetle. It's a real historical reference, a "must-have" book for every Beetle enthusiast who wants to know, from the scratch, the whole story of Volkswagen and this first - and more glorious and classical - car.

I'm thinking right now: why this book doen't have a version translated to Portuguese, or Spanish? It will sell extremely well in Brazil and Mexico, countries which people has a strong emotional binding with Beetle... maybe I buy the rights to translate it to Portuguese and sell it in Brazil!

If you came here looking for a high-quality literature about our lovely bug, your search ends right now. Press 'buy' and wait for the delivery. You won't regret.

On of the world`s most informative and well resourced books on the VW history.Gives an insight to the early vehicle development,political hurdles that had to be overcome as well as the generic industrial resistence that was present.H.Nelson, a gifted author,not only writes about the "first row" people but also about production personnel and production techniques.
Sales and marketing development & especially how the U.S. market was won not only fascinates the VW buff but everyone who ever had anything to do with the automotive industry.

I had to read this book for my senior project this year. It was my best source for the history section. Too bad the book dosn't go farther than the sixties.

This is the best source of detailed information about the creation and story of the Volkswagen company.

Great historical account of VW see how the came from humble beginnings and on their way to where they are today #1 in the world

History, sociology, and the "feeling" of the VW Beetle are expressed in this book. Very descriptive and inclusive, not boring like you'd expect it to be :)

I first read this book when I was 10 years old, and ever since it has amazed me how well written, interesting and researched was the original text. It's a shame that the story ends on the late 1960s, and considering that here in Mexico the little Beetle is still one of the best suited cars for the country, perhaps would be nice to have a second edition telling how it has made it to survive until the 1990s, becoming the "Car of the Century" and being registered on the Guiness Records with over 21 million cars produced on the last 60 years.

I was given a copy of this book back in 1971 when I aquired my first car, a 1959 Bug. This book helped cement a lifelong love of the Volkswagen Beetle. The author did such an outstanding job turning an industrial wonder into a love story. This book should be included in the glovebox of EVERY new VW and is a must for any Volkswagen lover.

When this book was first published in the 1960's the VW revolution was just just hitting it's stride in the US. It's only right that this, the best of the "VW Story" books should be reprinted as the New Beetle puts VW back on the map!