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comment by mk

To be fair, the Beetle is priced for those same hippies that now have more cash. Here are some cheap cars in 2016:

  Chevy Spark: $12,660; 66' adjusted: $1,707

Nissan Versa: $11,990; 66' adjusted: $1,617

Mitsubishi Mirage: $12,995; 66' adjusted: $1,752

At $1,352 the entry Beetle was indeed about $10k adjusted in 66'. But the car that bears the name is not targeting the same market now.

Even so, if you got the squareback with a sunroof, your 66' Wolfsburg Beetle set you back the equivalent of $14,658.

The price of cars is up some, but I don't think the affordability has changed too much. Especially when you consider that the quality of today's cars leads to a used car market with more cars that have life in them.