垂垂老矣：1974—2003年

    到1972年，美国大约已累计销售了400万辆甲壳虫。但大众的地位正逐渐被日本汽车厂商所取代，因为日本车的质量和技术更出色，而价格却更低廉。

    到1977年，随着组装成本的增加，加上大众公司把小型车的重点转移到了1974年推出的前驱车型大众高尔夫（Golf）身上，美国甲壳虫的销量已经下降到每年不足20,000台（1975年的销量还在90,000台以上）。自1981年开始，甲壳虫告别了美国市场。不过大众公司仍然在墨西哥继续生产这款车型，用来在某些南美国家销售。到2003年，甲壳虫的年产量已下降到30,000辆，与1971年的130万辆已有天壤之别。大众终于忍痛关掉了第一代甲壳虫的生产线。

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.