Random and pointless thought about advertising. When Max Hoffmann started importing VWs in 1949 he tried to emphasize the cool factor. Before the war he had been a luxury car dealer in Austria, so he was accustomed to moving in cool circles. The appeal didn’t work until the 60s, then it hit hard, starting in Cool California.
Hoffmann ignored the opposite type of Influencers who were far more common in normal America. This set of photos from the 50s shows both types. One pic is a California neighborhood with a Microbus in the background. Another is an Army man on a military base with a Beetle in the background.
Outside of California, foreign cars weren’t bohemian**, they were strictly associated with soldiers who brought them home as trophies. A smart distributor could have leveraged this association to counteract the more natural hatred of the enemy’s products.
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Partial correction: Skodas were Bohemian but they still weren’t bohemian. Which raises another puzzle. American bohemians liked to call themselves socialists, but they didn’t drive Soviet bloc cars. The eastern countries were trying to export cars, trying to find dealers. Rich hippies were uninterested. They specifically wanted Nazi VWs, not socialist Moskviches or Skodas.
Polistra's Mill 