Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Throughout its 73-year history, the VW Beetle has embodied VW’s “people’s car” philosophy, the original Type 1 becoming more than 21 million people’s car before production finally ceased in Mexico in 2003.
It was only during the 12-year term of the New Beetle introduced in 1998 and discontinued after the final 2010 models that those people became, by and large, female. In its peak year, the New Beetle sold more than 80,000 copies in the U.S., roughly 75 percent of them to women, based on our observation. (The other 25 percent going to very effeminate, very confident, or completely oblivious men.) If VW were to make its goal of moving 800,000 cars in the U.S. by 2018, even a percentage of the 83,434 Beetles sold here in 1999 would be a helpful number to add back into the sales charts.
Thankfully, in designing this generation of Beetle, VW started with the right priority: Reshape the car so it will appeal to more than just people who can get away with wearing skirts in public (Scots excluded). Gone is the syrupy-cute, large-bubble-eating-a-smaller-bubble look, replaced by a design with a flatter, lower roof, a flatter, longer hood, and tauter sheetmetal that looks like someone popped a pressure-relief valve and bled off a couple dozen psi.
The result is larger than its predecessor 7.3 inches longer, with 1.1 more inches between the wheels, and 3.3 inches wider and spectacularly retro. It is far more faithful to the original than the previous Beetle, right down to the wheel designs and delightful ’70s brown paint. VW seems unlikely to follow our suggestion to call this shade “dung,” thereby denying customers the option of buying a dung Beetle. However, in homage to the numerous entomological nicknames the vehicle has acquired around the world Käfer, Coccinelle, Maggiolino, to name a few VW will offer a variety of the monikers as optional replacements for the standard “Beetle” script on the hatch.
That’s It for the Poop Jokes
There are important practical implications for the new shape in addition to the obvious aesthetic ones. Although no longer boasting a top-hat-friendly front row ready for Abe Lincoln and Mr. Peanut’s Sunday drive, the Beetle’s interior still offers a spacious front seat. Even in a car with a sunroof his mortal enemy this six-foot, seven-inch scribe fits comfortably behind the wheel. The standard telescoping column’s generous reach is a tremendous aid. The Beetle’s sunroof is huge, but the hole it creates when open is small. Early in their ownership, we expect that many drivers will fiddle with its switch, thinking the roof should open farther. It does, however, slide back far enough to get in the way when the rear hatch is opened, which is why it automatically slides forward three inches when the rear portal’s latch releases.
Assuming all are average size, a quartet of adults can comfortably ride in the Beetle although those much loftier than average height will find their foreheads locked into a cutout in the trailing edge of the headliner. Although it does allow for taller riders, the cutout somewhat uncomfortably forces an upright posture, lest you constantly rub your forehead on cloth. On the other hand, it’s convenient for sweltering summertime rides when you want to wipe your brow on your friend’s headliner. And the simple manual folding operation of the front seats quickly opens a large passage to the rear, where 15 cubic feet of flower vases will fit beneath the rear hatch. (Capacity swells to 30 cubic feet with the rear seats folded.) Buyers wanting a vase in their Beetle will need a solution similar to this, as there is no longer one mounted on the dash. Good.
Soap Bars and German Cars
Structurally, if you think of the Beetle as a Jetta that has graduated from Soap Bars Anonymous, you won’t be far off. It shares much of that car’s platform, including the U.S.-market version’s torsion-beam rear suspension, although Beetles powered by the optional turbo four use a multilink rear setup like that on therecently announced Jetta GLI. On this early drive, the turbo was the only car available to us. The base engine is VW’s unique 2.5-liter inline-five; both it and the four have the same output in the Beetle as they do in its boxier brethren. The five chalks up 170 hp and 177 lb-ft; the four squeezes out 200 and 207. Transmission choices with the five are a five-speed manual and a six-speed automatic; the turbo gets a six-speed manual or six-speed DSG. A Beetle TDI, with VW’s 140-hp turbo-diesel producing 236 lb-ft of torque, will arrive next summer, as will a Beetle convertible. The Beetle R, with a higher-output turbo four making at least 240 hp, will bow sometime later. Learn More...
Source : http://www.caranddriver.com
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