Thanks to an agreement with fellow automobile manufacturers such as Chrysler and Studebaker, Volkswagen began to produce Type 1 Beetles for the Mexican market starting in 1955, with the latter importing them as complete knock-down (CKD) kits. It wasn't until 1964 when Beetles began to be produced locally in Mexico. Beginning in 1995, moldings were no longer chrome and were instead the same color as the body, but at the same time, front disc brakes/automatic seatbelts, and a generator. Moldings were dropped altogether in 1996. In states bordering Mexico, these are relatively common sights because Mexican nationals can legally operate the vehicle in the U.S., but some people had even found a way to register a Mexican beetle on the floorpans of U.S.-registered cars, in which the NTHSA put it on the hotlist of post-1978 grey market vehicles that don't meet U.S. regulations, even though other countries such as those in the European Union tend to have stricter safety standards. Only model years 1993 and prior can be registered in the U.S. due to the draconian Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988 (25-year ban enacted in 1998), yet these rules are somehow more lax in Canada because it's a 15-year cutoff rule for the same reasons as the U.S. Don't you think that the U.S. should have a 15-year rule too for this clause?
Image date: July 2017
Vehicle - Cars and Trucks, Land - Cars
Links: en.wikipedia.org
By: Carrera
