The Beatles were rejected by Decca Records because they felt that guitar groups were not as popular and that the group didn't have a future in show business. They certainly got that wrong, it's odd that a similar thing happened to VW's original Beetle.
The original design was by Ferdinand Porsche in 1933 and known as the " Kraft durch Freude Wagen " meaning " Strength through Joy Car ". It had not been produced by the start of WW2 and the VW Wolfsburg factory was employed in producing vehicles for the German war effort.
At the end of the war production of The Beetle began and it was managed by 2 British army officers, the idea being that the cars would be used by the allied occupying forces. Hence the reason why it became known in the USA . The original idea was to build a car that was cheap basic and reliable one that any family could afford. It had a rear mounted air cooled engine and no centre hump for the transmission giving more space inside.
It was certainly no beauty by the standards of the time, in fact it's chances of success were about the same as Decca had considered The Beatles, no future. Who could make this work? It was decided to offer the VW factory to Ford for nothing they ( Ford ) decided that what they were being offered was worthless. The British were also the same deal ,VW free, they made the same decision.
