That's because this is no ordinary Volkswagen. This is the original Herbie. The example you see here is the very one that was used in the filming of Herbie Rides Again and Herbie Goes to Monte ...

Either way, the character DFE chose to replace Johnny was their original creation HERBIE, a robotic little ding-dong whose powers seemed to be producing whatever deus ex machina device a given ...

Yes, HERBIE came along on that ill-fated space ... get past whatever issue they might have had with the guy in his original animated form. Not me, though. I can’t forget. Sorry.