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The history of VW Type 1 Sedans in Mexico started in 1954, when Germany sent 4 VW’s to an international business symposium (2 VW Beetles, a beetle convertible, and a combi van). The president of Mexico even met the cars at the port of Veracruz, not really wanting to wait to see them. 

At that time, in Mexico, cars from the US were pretty much all you could find, and they were….big. Like, size big. The VW Vochos were tiny in comparison, and in that, big interest was immediate.

To counter the US auto producers propaganda that there was no way these tiny gnat cars could ever last, a descendent of Ferdinand Porsche (yes, THAT Porsche) brought 7 vochos over from Germany and entered them into the prestigious and deadly Carrera Panamerican car race, which reached from border to border in Mexico, a full 3211 kilometers. Well, the vochos competed against Porsches and Ferraris, so there was no real illusion they would place, but… but… all seven vochos finished the race, which was pretty much a miracle. There was such outrage that the Panamerican Race Committee hired an independent mechanic from Houston to certify the vochos were stock, and not modified at all.

From there, they say, the rest is history. A dealership opened later that year and by 1961 there was an assembly plant located in Puebla that assembled vochos that came boxed from Germany.