When you are considering the most iconic cars of all time, it is difficult to ignore the Volkswagen Beetle, because this is a vehicle that came to define an entire generation.

Its enduring popularity has allowed it to be reincarnated multiple times, although its initial run lasted for a staggering 65 years meaning the original model remained a common fixture on roads across the world, with more than 21 million produced in this time.

You have to go back to the end of the 1930s to discover the origins of the Beetle, because it was conceived as a car which anyone could own.

Indeed it was at the behest of Adolf Hitler that famed auto designer Ferdinand Porsche set to work on a car for the people, or literally in German a 'volkswagen'.

A variety of models were made to fit this bill throughout the 1930s, although it was not until 1938 that the Volkswagen Type 1, or what we now know as the Beetle, was born.

As you might imagine the Second World War did somewhat interfere with the production of this model and while Germany remained occupied by allied forces following its conclusion, mass production was eventually able to resume.

Interestingly the Beetle may have been completely wiped from the face of history after a bomb hit the factory containing equipment essential to its production. Luckily this did not actually explode and by the mid 1940s the Type 1 was officially being manufactured, with orders placed by the British army for 20,000 vehicles.

What made the VW Beetle, affectionately referred to as the VW Bug, so popular and appealing in its early days was the fact that it could outclass all of its affordable rivals when it came to performance. Nothing could match its 71mph top speed or its 0-60mph acceleration of 27 and a half seconds.

While the Beetle was a quick hit in Europe, it took a little longer for the US market to warm to it. Various modifications and improvements to the design and the engineering of the Beetle were made as the 1950s began, but it was in the 1960s that this model really began to make a major impact on the motoring market.

The Beetle was advertised as being hard wearing and reliable, which were both accurate assessments of this great all-rounder. Promotional campaigns managed to result in increased sales and by 1973 it had managed to top the Ford Model T's record for most cars produced.

International production of the Beetle continued until 2003, although VW's New Beetle, based on the Golf platform, arrived in 1998.

A revised Beetle, known as the A5, made its debut in 2011 and while it is every inch the modern vehicle it still retains the distinctive design cues that went into the original.