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In 1949, the first Beetle was shipped to the United States. Half a million were to follow by 1960. A mere two years later there were one million
Beetles in the U.S. It has not been ascertained that Ben Pon was significantly involved in this success story, even though he was among the first to export
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them into the U.S. It cannot even be proved that he sold the first Beetle in the United States. He was, in fact, unable to find a partner for a distributorship and left the country with an unpaid hotel bill, but eventually it made him a
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102:. On August 8, 1947, The Pons became Volkswagen's general importer for the Netherlands. During their first year they received 51
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Ben's father, Mijndert Pon, owned a shop (founded in 1898) that sold sewing machines, household articles and tobacco goods at
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later became a partner of Pon's. The business continued to grow, and in 1980 Pon's son, former
Formula One racing driver
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In 1971, the dealership was separated from the export division and ran under the name of
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tires. Ben and his brother
Wijnand took over the shop in 1931 and renamed it
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A sketch made by Pon inspired the engineers at
Volkswagen to develop the
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to his range of goods. Beginning in 1920, Pon sold Opel and
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259:"Volkswagen Bedrijfswagens. De geschiedenis." (dutch)
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137:and one of the richest people in the Netherlands.
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110:. The company also became an importer of
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235:"Das große Käfer-Buch"
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201:Archived
176:Archived
123:"VW Bus"
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49:May 2009
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276:Lanz,
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84:Opel
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