Carmakers redesign platforms to incorporate the latest advances in weight-saving materials and safety, and they tweak sheet metal to lure buyers into showrooms with the promise of something fresh.

Volkswagen has recently announced the death of the reborn Beetle, which has reminded us all, lest we need it, that the original Beetle was an extremely long-lived car indeed. Here we take a look at all the longest-surviving cars, and where the original Beetle stacks up. We start at the shortest and work our way upwards…