Autos: The Beetle's Brothers

In a few months, Germany's perennially astonishing Volkswagenwerk will roll out the 13 millionth copy of the car that is known at Wolfsburg as "Type 1" —and to the rest of the world as "the beetle." The builders of the bug are less exultant over another statistic, however. Type 1, first manufactured in 1945, has already exceeded by five years the 19-year production span of Henry Ford's Model T—the Tin Lizzie that old Henry kept on too long, until it nearly carried him to ruin. Demand for the beetle remains strong, but VW fears getting stuck with a...