No fuel gauge? Doesn't surprise me, really. VWs were practically the definition of 'stark'.
I had a '67 Beetle once. (Much more fun than I ever would have guessed, by the way. A really nice car.) It had a fuel gauge. Something it lacked, which surprised me, was any kind of pump for the washer fluid. Instead it had a Schrader valve on the tank. You filled it with compressed air for spraying the fluid on the windshield. An impressive idea. Too simple to break down, yet it did the job fine.
By the way, the most beautiful cars list should have included the 1967, 68 & 69 Plymouth Barracuda Sport. The 'coupe' style Barracuda. Those were beautiful, too. And I'd give an honorable mention, for that matter, to the two-door Plymouth Valiants from the late 60s until the end. If not the most beautiful cars ever built, they certainly had a nice profile.