Why flat windshields?

[scottyrocks]

This may be a question that may or may not have an answer, and/or might be fun to kick around, but, given the curvaceous overall shape of the Beetle, and what was already known about aerodynamics and fuel economy, why were they designed with flat windshields?

The rear glass was curved so that wasn't impossible, and VW eventually got around to curving the front glass in 1973, but I wonder why it wasn't a design feature from the beginning?
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“If you care for a thing long enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn't it? Mending old things, preserving them, looking after them – on some level there's no rational grounds for it.”
– D. Tartt, 'The Goldfinch'

[raygreenwood]

Higher cost and no need.

It requires a drape mold to heat glass into a curve. More cost for a second mold.
Also it requires a more complex and expensive design to the front wiper arms to track the curve.
And....everything inside of that glass needs to be curved and farther from the glass, sucking up space.

The super got a curved winshield.....but it also changed structure in the front end a grew a dash 6 times as deep.

And.....the flat windshield worked fine. Ray

[79SuperVert]

Not only the front, but the rear glass was also flat in the first Beetles (the ones with the split rear window), for the same reason: cost.

Now, an interesting follow up question could be, why did the standard (non-super) Beetles introduce the very slightly curved "flat" front window in 1965? It's so slightly curved that you can't really tell it's curved, but it is because you can't use straight window wipers any more, you need the bendy ones. Was it a structural issue? More strength? Did it have to do with the increase in size of the windshield (and the other windows) in 1965?
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[hitest]

[Patty B.]

Do you also notice when your driving into the sun the flat(ish) windshield casts a glare on things? Like a bright white spotlight. I alway thought that pretty neat.

[Helfen]

[scottyrocks]

Thanks, that all makes sense now. I hadn't realized the split window glass was flat. Each piece is so small that no curve was necessary. So the 1938-to-1952 design had no curved glass at all.
_________________
“If you care for a thing long enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn't it? Mending old things, preserving them, looking after them – on some level there's no rational grounds for it.”
– D. Tartt, 'The Goldfinch'

[KTPhil]

[heimlich]

There was some law around the time of The Thing which prevented manufacture of them past 1974. I thought it was due to the windshield and some other safety factor.
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[mukluk]

[Joe 20]

I think they changed the Thing designation from an suv type vehicle to a passenger vehicle and there were different safety standards to meet. Ralph Nader had something to do with it. Possibly the sales figures had "someThing" to do with it too.

[ach60]

[heimlich]

[vwwestyman]

From everything I've read, the Thing was classified as some kind of off-road or "utility" vehicle rather than a "car" and therefore had more slack safety regulations.

Lee Iaccoca pushed to have the Thing classified as a "car" and therefore it no longer met the safety requirements of a car. There may have been more, but I know at least one was not the flatness of the windshield, but distance of the driver front seat passengers faces to the windshield. I once saw a letter VW wrote that pointed out all the off-road capabilities that the Thing had despite being 2WD in an effort to show that it shouldn't be classified as a "car." Unfortunately that didn't work and the classification was changed, killing the Thing in the US.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[raygreenwood]