The American Spectator : How the New Beetle Got Old

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How the New Beetle Got Old

By Eric Peters on 7.29.10 @ 6:07AM

So long to the New Beetle and its miserable 12-year run.

Turns out the second time's not the charm.

VW's New Beetle only lasted 12 years in production (2010 will be the final year; 1998 was the first year).

Though it arguably can be credited with almost single-handedly launching what became the "retro" trend in new car design -- spawning similarly historically-minded new/old cars like the Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chevy SSR, Mini Cooper and (most recently) the revived Camaro -- it never got its hooks into the public psyche the way its predecessor, the original Beetle did.

There were several reasons for this.

First, despite the generally familiar shape, the New Beetle was functionally nothing like the old one. It was built around a front-engined/front-wheel-drive layout while the old Beetle was, of course, rear-engined and rear-wheel-drive. The latter arrangement gave the old Beetle much of its charm -- as well as desirable attributes that included impressive tenacity in snow because the weight of the engine was right on top of the drive wheels, which aided traction.

The New Beetle's engine was also water-cooled (like almost all modern engines) and like all modern engines, it was a highly complex piece of machinery beyond the skill set (and tool set) of the average Do-it-Yourselfer. This meant that when the car needed work, a trip to the dealer was all but inevitable.

With the old car -- powered by a 1930s-era air-cooled "boxer" flat four with a single one-barrel carburetor, single fan belt, no radiator or water pump and a screen for an oil filter that you removed by turning out a single easy-to-reach bolt on the bottom of the engine case -- virtually all normal maintenance could be done in the driveway by any reasonably handy person with a few basic, inexpensive hand tools. This kept ownership costs low, which was always a key reason why people loved the old car so much.

Sure, it was slow and it leaked carbon monoxide into the passenger compartment (and water, when it rained). It was rust-prone and it often needed a turn of the screwdriver here or a trip to the NAPA store there. But it almost never cost you real money and while little troubles did pop up, they could usually be fixed -- by you -- in the space of 10 or 15 minutes. This was empowering, even if it was a minor hassle at the time.

Few things are more defeating in this life than being stuck by the side of the road with a dead car and no clue what to do as you wait helplessly for someone who does.

A final problem for the New Beetle was that in a market that craves change, the car was very hard if not impossible to update without it becoming something else entirely. The old Beetle was more or less the same for decades and no one minded because in those days, people were content with a slower pace and satisfied with the familiar -- and with what did the job well enough.

That won't sell today. The life cycle of a modern car is maybe four years before the market demands a major reworking, which amounts to a complete re-styling and re-engineering.

Not even Jaguars -- formerly known for their ageless design that endured for decades, as in the case of the old XJ sedans -- are safe from the march of time… and trendiness.

So when after three or four years on the market the New Beetle was still the same car it was at the beginning, people began to lose interest. After seven or eight years, it had become yesterday's news, old hat -- and no longer anything special or even especially interesting. And since it lacked the old car's miserly virtues to sell it, sales began to collapse.

VW did make an attempt to inject some of the old car's parsimony into the New by offering an advanced turbo-diesel engine. The problem was it cost a lot (close to $20k, new) which sort of defeated the whole purpose.

There was also a turbocharged sport version with a pop-out wing, just like a 911 Porsche. But that was a bad fit. A fast Beetle is a lot like a 4WD Corvette.

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About the Author

Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (Motor Books International) and a new book, Road Hogs.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (87) | Leave a comment

Mel Torme| 7.29.10 @ 7:14AM

Eric, I am in agreement with everything except your traction-in-the-snow comment. The old Bug had a small engine over the drive wheels in the back. The new "Beetle" has a heavier engine (due to the coolant system) over it's drive wheels in the front. (I'm just repeating what you said, as I've never looked at one closely). So, what gives? I think it would do just as well on slippery surfaces.

Handling aside, besides being nothing like the real Beetle, this new one looks about as gay as a car can get, unless said car is a PT cruiser, a Cooper Mini, or any car built in France.

Doctor Right| 7.29.10 @ 8:03AM

The new Beetle...The Mini-Cooper...The PT Cruiser...gay?!?!?

I like those cars...And at one time or another, I thought about buying one.

Uh-oh...

Ummm...I DON'T like show tunes...or fashion accessories...and I've never been to Fire Island...

...d'oh..?

Erich Riesenberg| 7.29.10 @ 12:54PM

Louder.

Mel Torme| 7.29.10 @ 1:54PM

Dr. Right, driving a car that people think of as gay does not make you gay; it just makes people think you are gay Thinking about buying a car that will make other people think you are gay just makes other people think that you are thinking of becoming gay.... or something. ;-)

Buy a Camaro, and nobody will think that anybody in even your extended family* has ever contemplated being gay.

* except for that one great-uncle that used to go to the Rocky Horror Picture show every weekend and has The Wizard of Oz in all formats ever made ( 16 mm film, VHS, Beta, 12-in. CD, DVD, and a spare copy on his jump drive ).

Tom Shire| 7.30.10 @ 11:14AM

I'm shocked, SHOCKED, to find homophobia on this website...

robert blair| 7.30.10 @ 11:44AM

Tom - I hope that was a joke from you. Calling the car "gay" isn't homophobia. It means that only a girly-man or a man who likes being mounted by men would drive it. I agree. The mini is in that group too. A great car, fun to drive, but totally not a guy's car.

Will| 8.30.10 @ 5:06PM

I have a mini cooper, and I'm straight. It shows that actually I'm comfortable with my sexuality, and don't need to buy a V8 muscle car with extra turbochargers to prove I'm straight, unlike the insecure people on this website who are so afraid of homosexuality that if they as much as see a gay man they have to go into the woods to kill something.

Bryan| 7.30.10 @ 3:04PM

I am certifiably gay and calling a car gay does not make one a homophobe. Gay.com actually did a survey to discover the "gayest" car and the New Beatle was on the top of the list for male gays and Suburu Forester was on top for gay females. Get some onions and don't call every reference to gay an act of homophobia. We boys are sturdier than that.

Mel Torme| 8.1.10 @ 9:31AM

Ha! Vindicated at last! Thanks for confirming my opinion, Bryan, and I am glad you didn't take offense.

I believe what Mr. Shire above, is really SHOCKED, JUST SHOCKED, I TELL'S YA about is that sometimes people don't act politically correct. For a lefty, that can indeed be quite shocking, as their entire world view is based on PC falsehoods.

Get used to free speech, Tom Shire. Once we restore the Constitution, you may have that right again, and I know that scares the crap out of you.

Brad Two Trees| 8.2.10 @ 1:59AM

Tom Shire was joking.

Tomas| 7.29.10 @ 1:17PM

Every time a VW Micro-Bus drives by my Jaw Of Envy hits the ground. Like the Beetle, it's the symbol of a generation. Freedom. Love. Peace.

Interesting that should be so, since the Beetle is one of the products of Hitler's Third Reich; in fact, the Beetle was Hitler's idea.

Give me a car with points, plugs, and a distributor cap. Please. The last time I had a simple car like that I coaxed 42mpg out of it, with my own hands, with my own tools. (Ask your kids what a timing light is.)

Screw the computer... give me a real car.

Quartermaster| 7.29.10 @ 5:59PM

You actually used a timing light on yours? I did only the first time. I rotated the timing mark to TDC then popped the distributor cap and made a mark where the rotor was at. From then on, I needed no timing light. A friend doubted me, so he checked it and left a believer. Just be careful on setting the point gap so you don't get dwell and timing messed up.

I'd love to have a Bug again.

Tim| 7.30.10 @ 7:58PM

Tomas, the Beetle WAS Hitlers idea. He had nothing to do with it's development. That was the responsibility of Ferdinand Porche.

Harry the Horrible| 7.29.10 @ 1:37PM

When I first heard about the "new" Beetle, I really hoped it would be like the old Beetle, just built with modern technology. You know, an air-cooled engine with updated design and materials, etc. I would have bought one for sure!
Boy, was that car a disappointment.

BTW: The PT Cruiser is NOT gay. Its retro and pretty cool looking. Go trundle off in your Miata.

Mel Torme| 7.29.10 @ 2:48PM

That's funny, as I was going to include the Miata also as one of the gay cars. Sorry for the oversight.

The only PT Cruiser in my area is driven by a lesbian. Case closed. Jury, you are excused. You can collect your 15 bucks from the bailiff on your way out.

Brad Two Trees| 8.2.10 @ 2:01AM

The PT Cruiser, if not gay, is BORING! Never liked it from the beginning, and sure don't like it now. Blecch!

JCfromDC| 7.30.10 @ 5:09AM

I think I'll miss the PT Cruiser more. That was OUR Beetle

stmichrick| 7.30.10 @ 10:21PM

PT Cruisers are NOT in the same category as the other, more aesthetically pleasing retro cars.

It looks like, and is owned by, aging lumpen would-be hipsters who drove Ford Mavericks in their youth. AND is a Dodge Neon beneath the skin to boot (another tin can)

The New Beetle design was clever, crash tested well for a small car and based on a VW Golf platform, which is a decent machine.

I rode across the country in a VW Super Beetle, and while it was reliable, it was uncomfortable as hell and a death trap if wrecked. Who is nostalgic for those qualities?

Appleby| 7.29.10 @ 7:16AM

Such attempts to bring back the Sixties in a format acceptable to the Viagra Generation are doomed to fail because they are as obvious as the graying ponytails and the Relaxed Fit jeans.

And besides, you cannot fit a space aged car seat in a Beetle -- or the extra 100 lb. of avoirdupois the Hippie Scum have added since the good old days.

Brian Mc| 7.29.10 @ 7:17AM

With the death of Saturn and now, the VW Beetle, what's a lefty to do with their pro-choice bumper sticker? Don't even bring up the flower on the dashboard...that told me everything I needed to know about who might possibly be driving.

Brian Mc| 7.29.10 @ 7:24AM

Don't worry, Alan Brooks, you can still get a pre-owned vehicle in your color of choice...might be purple, and Progressive Insurance might be able to give you really good rates to boot!

DB| 7.30.10 @ 12:10PM

Not! My 2001 Periwinkle Beetle (which I still own) had a " Republican woman make great leaders your following one now" sticker on it for years! For which I was flipped off many times (live in CA.) I currently have 173,000 miles on it and plan to put on many more miles as I have a long commute. Only have had very minor problems over the years which my hubby was able to fix. Beats driving my husbands large, stinky, Noisy Ford diesel truck eh! Yes, I am a Hippie at heart (like many here posting that won't admit it), but a conservative one!

DatsunMark| 7.30.10 @ 1:12PM

I've got news Brian Mc...the left is driving Prius's with Obama stickers on the bumper. Hope and change? I'm surprised Obama did not take over Toyota. (I want to see a retro Toyota 2000 GT with really lously gas mileage and 300-500BHP at the rear wheels and you can fix with a timing light.)

stmichrick| 7.30.10 @ 10:27PM

The lefties drive Subarus. I think they can be ordered with Obama stickers already applied.

Mystie| 7.29.10 @ 7:59AM

I think it's pretty clear what sealed the doom of the new Beetle. Smug, self-righteous ex-hippies everywhere flocked to the equally geeky-looking, but tree-huggier, Toyota Prius (each with a factory-installed Obama bumper sticker).

Karman| 7.29.10 @ 8:01AM

The reason you don't see old beetles any more is because they all went to the Old Volks Home.
sorry

Robert Pinkerton| 7.29.10 @ 10:11AM

G R O A N!

That was so bad I must remember it and repeat it.

Le Cracquere| 7.29.10 @ 8:17AM

Points well taken, most of them. Still, I don't get the AESTHETIC hostility towards cars like the new Beetle, PT Cruiser, and Mini. Their failure to look like variants on the same dull blueprint seems to offend carheads on a personal level. The bias toward sameness and suspicion toward historical designs seems profoundly unconservative to my uneducated perceptions. Why this reflexive animus against designs that a non-enthusiast can actually tell apart from other cars?

The Big E| 7.29.10 @ 9:14AM

The aesthetic complaint with those cars is that they lack originality in design, not that they fail to look like variants on the same dull blueprint. They are designed to look like other, familiar, cars, not to look beautiful, or unique. The cookie cutter cars which are variants on the same old blue print also lack originality. Both are hallmarks (IMHO) of lazy design.

Le Cracquere| 7.29.10 @ 9:26AM

They're unoriginal to the extent that they hearken back to earlier models; I'm just unsure why that's respectable in architecture but not in car design. (To my rankly amateur eye, they seem like the only ones that EVINCE originality by contemporary standards.) I'm not really certain what an auto-hobbyist's idea of good design would look like in an everyday ride.

Mel Torme| 7.29.10 @ 3:00PM

Yeah, if you want to get a newer vehicle that has a unique style that is not a copy, but truly original, you can get yourself the Aztek. It is very original; it's just that it's the ugliest thing on wheels since the Citroen sedan.

I also can't think of many cars that don't look like the same econoboxes and aren't copies. One that comes to mind is the 2990's style Honda Prelude. I kind of like that style. That's all I can think of right now, which doesn't say much for the aesthetic designers.

Mel Torme| 7.29.10 @ 3:07PM

OOPS, I meant to say the 1990's Prelude, not the 2990's Prelude. I have no idea what the 2990's one will look like, but I can guarantee you it will get at least 35 lpg ( light-years per gram of dylithium) on the skyway, probably a little less in mixed, cruising and cloaking, starfleeting.

It will most definitely not be build with union labor. They'll have enough trouble already with Tribbles in 2990 to have to deal with Jimmy Hoffa the XXXIV'th, who supposedly will be buried somewhere in the structure of Battlestar Galactica.

Quartermaster| 7.29.10 @ 6:02PM

The 2990 Prelude will resemble the 1990 in the new Retro design fad. You, of course, will hate it just as we hated the New Bug.

slhersey1@yahoo.com| 7.29.10 @ 6:55PM

Soylent Unleaded is UAW MEMBERS! It's UAW MEMBERS!!!

Brad| 7.29.10 @ 7:11PM

That reminds me, I need to get gas later. Thanks.

Mel Torme| 7.29.10 @ 7:34PM

That was great! However, I'll now have to cut out the soylent green due to the saturated fat. Is there anything else good for me out there, besides tofu tacos? Ah, Carumba!

Alert1201| 7.29.10 @ 8:29AM

What is really a shame about the loss of the original beetle other cars that were cheap and easy to fix was that for many it was the only car they could afford. My in-laws came to this country in 1976 after serving 19 years in the mission field . My father-in law had been trained as a descriptive linguist and and could not find high paying jobs so he was a painter for years and before he could establish himself he and his family drove VWs because they could buy them for reasonable price and fix them themselves. I did the same when I was in high school with '69 Datsun pickup.

I use to be you could buy a cheap well built car that would not fall apart after 100K miles and if it did you could fix it. Those days are gone.

Peter Nebergall| 7.29.10 @ 8:33PM

In the 70s, I was a VW repair professional. My love was the Type III, but I fixed many a Bug. When Rabbit arrived, it was 5x harder to fix, and when the CIS fuel injection came in, I found another job....

Tina| 7.29.10 @ 8:30AM

Eric, you are right on the money with this. I too had a old bug for my first car and with all of it's faults and quirks I adored it. When the new bug came out my heart skipped a beat and I couldn't wait to check it out. I was disappointed to say the least and since then I've read nothing but major problems with these new beetles, complete basket cases really! Oh well some day I will have to find another old one to tinker with.

tdiinva| 7.29.10 @ 8:40AM

Eric Peters is an exemplar of why the New Beetle had such a short lifespan. It is a nostalgia car for the boomer generation. I know people wax nostalgic for the original beetle but it was a piece of junk and was not particularly special when it came to self maintenance. My '67 Valiant with its 225 ci slant six was easy to work on as well.

The Beetle and the other retrocars were targeted at a key demographic that wanted a faint glimpse of their youth but nostalgia lasts only as long as it takes to realize that the old days are gone and they weren't that glorious afterall. Once the magic spell is broken the nostalgia evaporates. The good old days of youth were never that good when you were going though them.

Tim| 7.30.10 @ 8:45PM

I would rather drive an original, regardless how old it is. There is a vibrant, old car society here in the US and it doesn't matter where the car originally came from, there is SOMEONE here to help you keep it running. I personally commute to work everyday in a MG Midget.

KS| 7.29.10 @ 8:46AM

About a month ago, I was in a focus group for VW and saw prototypes for the next Beetle, including a convertible. They reminded me of a PT Cruiser. VW is trying to appeal more to men this time. The reactions of the focus group members were mixed.

Denver Todd| 7.29.10 @ 8:58AM

There are many things on the market today, not just cars, where the skin is the thing, but inside is something else. Buyer, use your head.

Matt Morehouse| 7.29.10 @ 9:56AM

I had one in high school. Never particularly liked it but it did get me from point A to point B most of the time and, yes, they could be fixed easily but they just didn't have the girl getting effectiveness of the V8 muscle cars of the day.
The new ones never, ever, impressed me. I don't think I saw anyone other than a "Jennifer" in one. surely no man would ever be seen driving around with a posy on the dashboard (unless he had caught the gay).

Jennifer| 7.29.10 @ 7:13PM

EXCUSE ME?!?!?!

Matt Morehouse| 7.29.10 @ 11:19PM

Jennifer is the generic term for any young airhead. They all seem to carry that moniker.

Dai Alanye| 7.29.10 @ 10:11AM

A Chevy SSR? Let me know where to find one--I've had to settle for an HHR.

Petronius| 7.29.10 @ 10:14AM

VW has built pooters before. And I have a friend with a marvelous story about the Haunted Scirocco.
The old Beetle stood the American auto industry's concept of planned obsolescence on its rear. And with the advent of the EPA, the big 3 quit building cars we wanted to drive like the Dart Swinger and offered us underpowered junk.
Just remember everybody. Those high compression V8's along with the VW's were legislated off the road. Let's off the EPA and the Naderite prigs and take back our Freedom.

Peter Nebergall| 7.29.10 @ 8:36PM

I had the Scirocco's big brother, the 5-cylinder Audi GT-C. It was good for only 1 thing: speed. I had it up to 135mph, and there was more under the hood -- and I finally sold the car with 432,000 miles on the original engine. The buyer drove it away and used it...
I'm a huge fan of old Audis...

Fast Johnny| 7.29.10 @ 11:05AM

The old VW bug was the stuff of legend. Incredibly good in snow, with the engine weight placed almost directly over the rear wheel drive and very simple mechanically, the car was something that one would drive till the floorboards rusted out. After that we would convert them into 'Baja bugs'. Inexpensive and well thought out, the old VW bug handled like a Porshe and cost nothing to maintain. My father and I swapped engines from his old rusted out one to one that he had found in a junkyard in just one day. The only real problem I ever knew about was that the air cooled system sometimes failed, but anyone who knew about that could just get underneath the car and make sure the flaps were operating and not seized up with grit and corrosion and problem solved. When I first got my driver license back in the late 70's, the understood car of 'saving money' was the VW bug or the Toyota Corolla, both simple, maintainable and good on gas. Doesn't anyone remember using the change from the ashtray to put a couple of gallons in the tank so that you could go out on a Friday night? I would suspect that if VW had produced almost an exact copy of the VW bug of old at a very cometitive price, it would have been a success. They just forgot why they were here, they were supposed to be building 'peoples cars' (volks-peoples/wagon- vehicle) not an ever increasing high end product. that wouldn't sell. Where the heck did they do their market research?

MarkM| 7.31.10 @ 10:04PM

They only stopped production of the old Beetle a few years ago. They are ubiquitous in Mexico and the smog in Mexico City was terrible. I think there were a lot in Brazil, too.

chester arthur| 8.1.10 @ 10:28AM

So smog is thick because of beetles?Yikes!Sounds like a Prius driver statement.Smog is mostly due to heat,not cars.A well-tuned old car that anyone can fix pollutes a lot less than a high-tech mobile computer case that even the dealer can't fix.I'll stick with my 50's and 60's cars.They go hundreds of thousands of miles and run well,can can be fixed easily and cheaply.The more modern equivalent was the 80's Caprices.There are still millions of them running and they can actually be fixed when they break.Naturally,gm couldn't tolerate that.You can't drive one without being asked if it's for sale.

RichTex| 7.29.10 @ 11:06AM

This takes me back to my high school days. One summer, I signed up for driver training (you could get your license in Texas at 15 in those days) through the school system. But they had a rule that everyone taking the training had to do so in a car with a manual transmission. So, I ended up in a Beetle. I’ve never had any fond memories of those cars, and neither would you if you drove one unairconditioned around Dallas in the summertime.

What should have been a six day course actually took at least twice that long to complete, since the car was in the shop just about every other day. According to the instructor, it was because the girls taking the lessons (never the boys, always the girls) rode the clutch regularly and burned it out. I will say that it was an easy car to drive and learn on, even though I had had no previous experience with a stick shift.

Dean from Ohio| 7.29.10 @ 11:29AM

My family had a '65 beetle with clutch and it bounded over the snowdrifts. When the accelerator cable broke, I remember helping my mom by setting the little stairstep accelerator gizmo on the engine and watching her drive 3 miles home at a constant slow speed. How cool was that! We then had a light blue '72 beetle without a clutch (just let up on the gas when you shift). My first car was a VW Rabbit GTI, great fun to drive even if the muffler and alternator were constant problems.

I think Eric Peters sensibilities are too delicate, though, on the new bug. So what if it isn't designed for the do-it-yourself mechanic? Big deal. However, its appeal isn't what I expected. I suggested to my daughter that a new-style light blue VW bug convertible would be just the thing for her first car, but she wasn't interested. Oh well.

Ferdy Porsche| 7.29.10 @ 5:01PM

No one has mentioned the heater. I loved my `65 and `70 but I carried a nylon mesh dish cleaning thing to scrub the frost off the inside of the windshields. And that wasn't too hard because it was about 4 inches from my nose. I never understood how the Germans lived with it in the Alps. (Btw, it worked like gangbusters in the summer.)

SteveA| 7.29.10 @ 11:34AM

Proven fact they are the preferred car of serial killers anyway so who cares.

Brad| 7.29.10 @ 7:17PM

True. Ted Bundy in particular, because the passenger front seat was removable. The actual car he used for his crimes in Washington and Oregon is now on display at a crime museum in D.C...

Mark| 7.29.10 @ 11:39AM

Uh, it lasted 12 years. That's a pretty good run. Hardly what I would call a failure.

Stan Redmond| 7.29.10 @ 11:50AM

The new Beetles were granny cars. The PT Cruiser is a granny car. Ugly, innefecient, expensive, and ergonomically stupid. Aside from the "so ugly it's cute" factor for grannies these cars would have never been put out to market. The new retro muscle cars will fail soon too once the 20 something man figures out it's not worth 3 jobs to keep the payments. Are there really so few new ideas out there? Old car designs, movie remakes, and tired old recycled marxist political ideas...

Brtian B| 7.29.10 @ 11:53AM

Through design, I never had the misfortune of owning a VW Bug, but as a driver in the Sierra Nevada's of California there are few things more apt to spoil a pleasant Sunday drive than to be stuck behind a noisy, smelly, nearly immobile "hill detector".

Motown Mike| 7.29.10 @ 12:39PM

So personal were the old Bugs that people actually named them. Can you imagine that?

Um, mine were Larry and Sebastian.

Texas Jayde| 7.29.10 @ 12:42PM

my father referred to "bugs" as german coffins but then he was a truck driver.

Harrison| 7.29.10 @ 12:50PM

What did the New Beetle is was poor reliabilitiy, expensive repair costs, and silly things like having to remove the bumper to change a turn signal bulb which, because VWs have screwy electrical systems, burned out often.

VW also underwent numerous management changes and the model fell out of favor. Also, the Beetle's business model was to never change the car for 50 years... that doesn't fly now.

As someone who has owned an aircooled VW for over 15 years I can tell you they are great cars but the New Beetle failed for its own reasons.

Rob S| 7.29.10 @ 1:00PM

I have a 2003 platinum-color one, so as to look mas macho, but I do indeed have the dashboard flower [hey, I -like- it, and I'm NOT this car's typical driver. It's had quite a bit of service problems, and hardly a month goes by without something falling off somewhere. So far, the glove compartment latch broke off, the parking brake decorative chrome knob came off, and I can't keep the plastic moulding around the seats in place. When it cost me $220 at a -dealer- to fix a burnt out headlight, I was additionally "disappointed." It only gets about 22 MPG, where the old ones got about 40. I liked it at first, but the gloss has worn off. My 13-year-old daughter, though, can't WAIT to have it! That is, -if- it survives that long.

michigander_sandusky| 7.29.10 @ 1:02PM

I always heard the old Beetles called "Hitler Hotrods."

Larry in Iowa| 7.29.10 @ 1:32PM

Say what you like about the Mini Cooper, mine will out handle anything built in the US and almost everything built elsewhere. I love it when some lead footed muscle car or sports sedan driver tries to follow me around a curve or keep up in traffic. When I kick in the turbo at the end of the turn I'm practically out of sight by the time they stop worrying about sliding off the road. The new Beetle? Just not any fun to drive. The Cooper S on the other hand........

murat| 7.29.10 @ 2:05PM

Freddie| 7.29.10 @ 2:05PM

I'm a white male middle-aged conservative. I am way outside the target demographic. But I have a bright yellow new Beetle. My bumper stickers confuse people; they are not what they expect on a bright yellow new Beetle.

Kevin| 7.29.10 @ 2:09PM

Motown Mike| 7.29.10 @ 12:39PM said
"So personal were the old Bugs that people actually named them. Can you imagine that? "

Not only Beetles. Our family has always named all of its cars--they run better with names.

What?? You mean most people don't?

WW2buff| 7.29.10 @ 2:36PM

There were 'People's Car' in German service during WWII, but their performance was demonstrably inferior to the US's 'General Purpose' or Jeep vehicle. I know some one who owns a WWII Jeep. He is a mechanic by trade, but he can still drive his Jeep around, if he stays under 50 mph.
Farewell, Bug, we lament the not.
The VE Bus, on the other hand, was awesome.

JimH| 7.29.10 @ 2:48PM

Just remember the National Lampoon ad from years ago. 'If Ted Kennedy drove a VW he'd be president'

Mike Rophone| 7.29.10 @ 3:03PM

Didn't old VW run an ad where they claimed the Beetle could float? LOL re President Ted

Mike Rophone| 7.29.10 @ 2:59PM

The final (and best) model IMHO was the 2005 Turbo Convertible. I drive it about 600 miles a year as a collector's car. So far nothing has fallen off of it, except my enthusiasm. Same for the Camaro. It's fun for the first 1,000 miles. But it's just another car with a vintage name badge.

Wait for the Volt, if you like to experience car-controversy. Oh boy...

don| 7.29.10 @ 4:08PM

The run was in fact a 13 year run 98, 99, 00, 01 , 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10. Count em'. 13 years.

Stuart Koehl| 7.29.10 @ 4:30PM

"The latter arrangement gave the old Beetle much of its charm -- as well as desirable attributes that included impressive tenacity in snow because the weight of the engine was right on top of the drive wheels, which aided traction."

Well, maybe. But as with its military utility cousin, the Kubel, most of the credit goes to light weight and low ground pressure. And, in a pinch, four people could pick it up.

"That won't sell today. The life cycle of a modern car is maybe four years before the market demands a major reworking, which amounts to a complete re-styling and re-engineering."

Actually, I suspect that's a load of crap. Sometimes something is just right, and then you're a damned fool to screw with it. I guess, if we follow Peters' logic, there is no market for the Porche 911, which of course, is forty years old (older, if you want to go back to its Speedster origins, at which point we intersect with the VW Karman Ghia) but technologically new under the skin. And for an example of screwing with a perfect design, look no further than Honda, which ruined the CR-V after the 2007 model, and which ceased production of the Civic Si Hatchback--a car that always looked like it was doing 100 mph, even when it was parked.

One thing for sure--VW's lame attempt to transfer the mystique of the venerable punch buggy to its utterly anonymous Krautmobiles (indistinguishable from all other German cars) is bound to fall on its ass.

RichTex| 7.30.10 @ 1:43PM

Your mention of the Beetle’s light weight reminds me of another story, this one concerning former TCU and Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman, Bob Lilly. My sister went to TCU a few years after Lilly graduated, but she knew people there who were Lilly’s contemporaries and swear that this actually happened. One day Lilly found a Beetle parked in his parking spot, so by himself he lifted one end of the car and set it up on the sidewalk. He then walked to the other side of the car and did the same, clearing his parking space and leaving the Beetle sitting up on the sidewalk.

Hugh| 7.29.10 @ 4:48PM

My family owned several of the old Beetles. We started with a 57 convertible, traded it in for a 59 convertible. We kept that car till it died in 1975 (I learned to drive in it). We got a 67 (which one of my brothers totaled) then a 68. We traded that one for a 73, which in turn was traded in for a 74 Superbeetle.

I still have that 1974 Superbeetle convertible. You can see a picture of it here:
http://i712.photobucket.com/al.....icture.jpg

Gabby| 7.29.10 @ 5:11PM

Learned to drive on a '57 Beetle--one with the tiny oval rear window and a "roller" on a pedestal for an accelerator. No gas gauge--just a flip over lever on the firewall to activate the reserve--just like an old BMW motorcycle (well sort of). It belonged to my Uncle who gave it to my Grandfather. A whopping 36 horsepower!

Was tooling around muddy rural dirt roads having the time of my life at 9 years old!! The clutch and stick shift were almost intuitive. Pawpaw built a little trailer using the front axle off a wreck to haul his flat bottomed fishing boat--that way his spare would also fit the trailer. Neat little car. The "new" version was a reskinned rabbit/golf--same troublesome power train.

Capt G| 7.30.10 @ 2:35AM

The new retro cars most abjectly fail the styling test; they're purported forte. Every last one of them are fat, with the Mini leading the parade. Their previous incarnations had far more lithe and distinctive styling, most notably because they predated the composite molded in bumper of today's cars. Bumpers. You remember bumpers; those things you and a buddy grabbed to lift the car end out of trouble. The things you hung on to while skeeching in the snow-covered streets.

Beetles never got great gas mileage, as compared to an early Honda or Toyota, and referring to their handling as similar to the Porsche 911 is apt only when you consider that the 911 "is the ultimate execution of a bad idea". You don't hang 60% of a vehicle's weight out the back end without creating understeer on the order of the Queen Mary. They only failed to suffer the 911's propensity for lift-throttle oversteer due to the fact that doing anything with the throttle on a Beetle was an unremarkable event. Beetles had traction which is to vehicle dynamics a variant of the idiocy that heavy cars "hug the road". That said, you might not have been able to zip around a corner in the snow or in the dry in your Bug but you could drive it through anything in a straight line.

The Beetle had the best seat-belts of the era, period. It had a great glove box and not a stylized plastic black hole. It's transaxle was sweet shifting in the same way Porsches were with second gear back a this-a-way and third up over there sorta.

An old Beetle would never sell today to the same people it sold to when originally produced. You can't even begin to imagine where you'd put the six speakers to a modern car stereo system although, although kids would marvel today that the car had no need for a battery as long as there was someone to push start you.

Air conditioning? We all knew the end was near for the old Beetle when they introduced air-conditioning. When you could get a 5% increase in power to the rear wheels just by turning the headlights (and the generator) off ,the power sapping effects of an air-conditioning compressor boded ill.

If the heater boxes astride the engine were not rusted out you could, after a time, get a decent amount of heat to your feet. Well, the area of your feet any way. If the rocker panels were not rotted out, because the heat ducted from under the back seat and then into the rocker panels from which it then rose up the door pillars to defrost the windshield, to which it never arrived. Beetle owners were adept at not breathing on the windshield (no small feat since it was a few inches in front of your nose) lest they fog it up further or create a heavier layer of frost. Of course, Beetle owners were accustomed to scraping their windshields both inside and out. Perhaps presaging some of BMW's ideas on how to lay a vehicle out, Volkswagen was for years unperturbed that heat never reached the defroster vents and continued to install yet more ducting designed to channel the non-existent heat yet further; over the tops of the doors and back to vents alongside the rear window. Only German hard-headedness could continue to insist that such a system worked, although it would if you installed an old pick-up truck blower motor under the rear seat.

The cars had damn good seats, the kind you expect from a German car, in that they were firm and allowed hundreds of miles to be traversed with no orthopedic trauma. I have rather more vague recollections of a brief experiment with a windshield washer spritzer that was supposed to derive it's motive force from the air in the spare tire. There were no gauges in the car save the speedometer and if either of the two red warning lights came on during operation it was to indicate that you needed an engine rebuild, five minutes ago. And every town small or large had someone dedicated to just that proposition. Or you could go to the junkyard and pick up a VW engine...any VW engine since they seemingly all fir irrespective of year or VW model.

They were great cars for young people; Mary Lou Retton couldn't get pregnant in a Beetle. There are no confirmed reports of anyone successfully completing the sex act in a hardtop Beetle much less pregnancy. Daughters were safer in a Beetle than their parents living room after their parents went to bed. Don't ask me how I know that.

They were fine cars that did little exceptionally and even less wrong. And they were incredibly fun to drive compared to the lead sleds of the day.

nail| 8.3.10 @ 6:02PM

The Bug was in fact, very safe, aside from a propensity to roll over due to the inward canted rear wheels. Don't ask - I rolled one 2.5 times with four people in the car and no-one suffered more than a bruised knee. Another time I was driven off a snow covered thruway by another car losing control, went sideways at 50mph, bashed the guardrail 3 times and came out with a $200 repair - bolt on wing, headlamp and bumper. The car was strong and shaped like an egg. Sorry to report it was applicable to sex and pregnancy, albeit at the cost of a kicked out rear side window. I had five of them and would buy another in a second. Best car ever built, followed by the original Jeep Cherokee (1985 on), simple, easy & cheap to fix, able to do anything including pulling out stumps - but that is another car. Bring back the BUG!

Agravarian| 7.30.10 @ 5:41PM

Heater? The Bug had a heater? Oh, yeah! Worked only in the Summertime. Had to stuff cardboard in those louvers, louvres, loovers, Oh, to hell with it--- those little grilles by the sides of the floor, and rags in the lower corners of the windshield. Wintertime, you had to run it up a steep hill to warm the engine to get any heat out of it. Retro? How about a Morgan Plus 4? They still make the Plus 8.

rafory| 7.30.10 @ 7:32PM

The old Beetle and the new one were built for different reasons and for different markets. It' not fair to compare them straight up. And pray tell what modern car can you work on yourself today like we did the old beetle?

Cindy| 7.30.10 @ 10:08PM

I have to say that I am a 50's something female (old hippie) and I have a lime green 2002 Turbo Diesel Beetle and I love it! It has 175,000 miles on it and it's still going strong!!! I get over 36 miles to the gallon and have a blast with it. I first learned how to drive in a 1970's Bug with an automatic stick shift (do any of you remember them?) I am also a radical, free thinking, Obama BIG disliker, (don't want to say hater to offend anyone but you get my drift) female (and NO I am not gay or lesbo!)who when is pissed off with ignorant drivers steps on the turbo and blows black smoke out the back and says, "here's to you AL Gore and you idiot green peacers!!!" I am saddened that the Beetle will be laid to rest.

Capt G| 7.30.10 @ 10:35PM

Both cars are built for the same reason (generate a profit of VW) and the same market (2dr/4seat sedan buyers).

The only difference between the two is that the original would still be in production had it not been legislated/regulated into obsolescence while the modern replacement had nothing more to recommend it than a nostalgia trip.

The old Beetle's styling was incidental to it's purpose while the modern Beetle's styling is it's purpose.

And while all cars have of necessity become more complicated to work on than the old Beetle, it might be noted that it has been decades since VW made a car that was easy to work on. With the tarting up of M-B, easy to work on cars now come primarily from Asia, even America, but certainly not Germany any longer.

Most people interested in the virtues of the old Beetle can be found driving some type of Hyundai or Kia today. It is fair to compare the two Beetles when VW itself invites the comparison. This is hardly the first incidence of delusional thinking on the company's part.

VW4ever| 7.31.10 @ 10:58AM

Still have a '74 super purchase by my wife in '78. I have has the pleasure of driving it for the last 20 yrs. Has 300,ooo miles on it and still has the original engine and trans. It is just well maintained. Hope to keep it going for another 10 for daily transportation and car shows. BTW, we had a New Beetle for 10 yrs.. it got old so we sold it.

jem2j2| 8.1.10 @ 4:24PM

Points, distributor, manly car?...Get a Triumph TR-6
Truly the bloakiest of cars!

nraendowment| 8.2.10 @ 4:07AM

The new Beetle became a "chick car" as soon as it hit the showroom floor. If I see a guy driving one I assume it belongs to his girlfriend/wife. Seriously, a flower vase on the dash?