垂垂老矣：1974—2003年

????到1972年，美國(guó)大約已累計(jì)銷售了400萬(wàn)輛甲殼蟲(chóng)。但大眾的地位正逐漸被日本汽車廠商所取代，因?yàn)槿毡拒嚨馁|(zhì)量和技術(shù)更出色，而價(jià)格卻更低廉。

????到1977年，隨著組裝成本的增加，加上大眾公司把小型車的重點(diǎn)轉(zhuǎn)移到了1974年推出的前驅(qū)車型大眾高爾夫（Golf）身上，美國(guó)甲殼蟲(chóng)的銷量已經(jīng)下降到每年不足20,000臺(tái)（1975年的銷量還在90,000臺(tái)以上）。自1981年開(kāi)始，甲殼蟲(chóng)告別了美國(guó)市場(chǎng)。不過(guò)大眾公司仍然在墨西哥繼續(xù)生產(chǎn)這款車型，用來(lái)在某些南美國(guó)家銷售。到2003年，甲殼蟲(chóng)的年產(chǎn)量已下降到30,000輛，與1971年的130萬(wàn)輛已有天壤之別。大眾終于忍痛關(guān)掉了第一代甲殼蟲(chóng)的生產(chǎn)線。

The Aging Beetle: 1974-2003

????By 1972, approximately four million Beetles had been sold in the U.S. But VW was increasingly being overtaken by Japanese carmakers building vehicles with superior quality and technology at a lower price.

????By 1977, U.S. Beetle sales had declined to fewer than 20,000 a year (down from over 90,000 just two years earlier) as the cost of assembly increased and VW shifted its small-car emphasis to the front-drive Golf, introduced in 1974. The last Beetle was sold in the U.S. in 1981, though Volkswagen continued to build it in Mexico for sale in some South American countries. By 2003, annual production had fallen to 30,000 cars from a peak of 1.3 million in 1971, and the Beetle was finally laid to rest.