Anecdotes

In the sequence where Herbie "walks the plank", a real Volkswagen Beetle was cast out into the sea. It was never recovered.

A total of 26 Volkswagen Beetles played the part of Herbie in this film due to the enormous number of stunts.

Herbie's name is mentioned only once in the film. This occurs when Pete first picks up Herbie at the beginning. The owner of the car lot tells Pete a story about Jim Douglas and says, "Herbie, he see it, he stop." For the rest of the movie, the car is called Ocho.

Although the film still turned a profit, the takings were more than a third less than the previous entry. In fact the box office for the Herbie series had been slowly tailing off with each subsequent sequel, whilst production costs had been increasing. With this in mind Walt Disney Productions decided to retire the series after this one for twenty five years, until 'Herbie Fully Loaded' (2005) was released a quarter of a century later.

Although the film did only middling business, the book adaptation of the story sold very well and made the top ten children's books chart on its release in 1980.