"2018 Beetle Sunshine Tour to Wolfsburg": Thousands are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the New Beetle

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"2018 Beetle Sunshine Tour to Wolfsburg" – this was the motto on this Saturday for the 14th great Beetle, #newbeetle and Beetle Community gathering. This year's event centred around the 20th #anniversary of the #newbeetle. A contemporary classic on the way to becoming a genuine classic. Like the original Beetle. Beetle, #newbeetle and original Beetle – three generations of a compact, timeless #volkswagen with friends in all four corners of the world. Thousands of these aficionados flocked to #wolfsburg on saturday to celebrate one of the most likeable icons of #automotive history.

The highlight of this year's "2018 Beetle Sunshine Tour to Wolfsburg" was a procession of more than 200 Beetles, New Beetles and original Beetles through the #volkswagen plant. This was something that had never been done before. Part of the crowd: rare editions like the Hebmüller convertible, dating back to 1950, and one of the rare model year 2000 #newbeetle RSI models with an output of 225 PS. And of course the most recent models were also attending, for instance the Beetle Cabriolet Dune. Participants accessed the plant premises via "The Ritz-Carlton" hotel gate before cruising down Südstrasse between Mittelland Canal and the main plant towards Volkswagen's iconic main administration building. A very special route, by the way, as parts of the plant and the entire tower block have been listed. The procession moved along Mittelstrasse, a road usually characterised by plenty of #volkswagen employees going to their workstations and large trucks delivering parts to production lines just in time. The parade then headed further to Autostadt, where the tour turned into a festival. Participants and visitors gathered under the towers of Autostadt to exchange information amongst aficionados, celebrate and gather around the three generations of vehicles representing the #automotive nucleus of an entire group of companies for a day. It goes without saying that the parade also involved #newbeetle models. This vehicle series, which celebrates its 20th #anniversary this year, has never been a conventional new or used car, but always also a way of life. Now the time has come for the first models to be upgraded to contemporary classic cars – the first step to becoming a genuine classic.

By the way, the 2018 edition of the Beetle Festival took place in #wolfsburg for the very first time. The special location beneath Autostadt and the plant are a tribute to the New Beetle's #anniversary. The Beetle Sunshine Tour was established 14 years ago by Beetle driver Gabriele Kraft from Lübeck/Travemünde. She has remained the life and soul of the tour to this day.