A Volkswagen Beetle car is parked in front of a grocery store in Addis Ababa, September 8, 2017. (Photograph: Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)
Wider image: Life after death for the ‘Love Bug’ in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA – At Kinfe Abera’s garage in Addis Ababa, cranky, 50-year-old Volkswagen Beetles enjoy a kind of life after death; their parts are never discarded but re-used to keep the city’s remaining Beetles on the road.
The Beetle was born in the 1930s out of dictator Adolf Hitler’s desire to produce a cheap “people’s car” for the German family. After World War Two it sold in the tens of millions around the globe and in the 1960s even starred in a Disney movie as Herbie the “Love Bug”.
Production of the original version of the curvy little vehicles ended in 2003, and authentic spare parts can be hard to come by. So Ethiopian mechanics have to “slaughter” some cars to keep others alive.
“If one is in a bad condition, we will cannibalize it and give its parts to other cars. That is how we extend their life,” said Kinfe, the 74-year-old garage-owner who has been working on Beetles for six decades.
“The Volkswagen Beetle is a servant car for lower income people. They never fail you – they take you anywhere and have excellent functionality,” he said.
A 1978 model Volkswagen Beetle is parked in front of the Ethiopian National Theatre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, October 13, 2017. (REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri)
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