Going down in history: End of the road for Volkswagen's iconic Beetle

On Friday, Handelsblatt reported VW also plans to halt production for a week next month of the Golf

Herbie is going on hiatus. Volkswagen AG is ending worldwide production of its iconic Beetle, the model once so popular in North America that it prompted the German automaker to build its first factory on the continent in the 1960s. The last one will roll off the line from the company’s factory in the state of Puebla, Mexico, in July 2019.

VW had been pulling the Beetle from select markets as part of a broader effort by the German giant to rein in its bloated product range, which spans more than 300 different vehicles and variants, including heavy trucks, motorbikes and