This week, however, saw the Beetle's chapter close when Volkswagen ceased production of the hatchback at its factory in Puebla, Mexico.

For many Beetle owners, such as Launceston's William Holmes, Beetles have been a significant part of their entire lives.

"The first car I ever learnt to drive was a beetle," Mr Holmes said.

"I would've been about eight years of age."

Mr Holmes owns a 1964 Australian-built Beetle, he purchased it in 2009 after he got his license.

"I put the sticker kit on it to look like Herbie just for that summer while I got my Ps just as a bit of fun and it just went from there," he said.

"It was my daily driver for the first four or five years and it took me across Tasmania, I think we did about 50,000 kilometres in it."

Mr Holmes' Beetle has been modified in as many ways as possible to mimic the popular Herbie car character that featured in a series of films in the 1960s and '70s.

Everything down to the radio is the same as Herbie's, for a time it even had the same number plates.

"Unfortunately, I'm known as the guy with the Herbie car," Mr Holmes said.

Like many who own a Beetle, Mr Holmes tested it to its limits taking it across beach dunes and up frosty mountains.

"You name it, it's been there because the Beetle was the cheap car out of Germany, built in such a way that it could be easily rebuilt, repaired and maintained," Mr Holmes said.

"Because they were so cheap, cheerful and plentiful people started taking the bodies off them and turned them into beach buggies.

"With a weekend's worth of modifications you could climb up each and every sand dune that you could find so they really are that universal vehicle."

Mr Holmes was sad to see the Beetle era come to an end.

"To actually see the bugs disappear from the showrooms all together is quite sad because it has run all the way since 1938," Mr Holmes said.

"You could quite safely say they're the most modifiable vehicle in history."

The Beetles' shift off the production now leaves the vehicle as a collectors item.

As for Mr Holmes, parting with his Herbie is not an option no matter the price.

"I reckon if I had a dollar for every time someone's wanted to buy it... this is probably going to be the only car that I'll ever keep," he said.

"I don't drive it anymore but I have no interest in getting rid of it."

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