Underpinnings consist of MacPherson struts up front and VW's V-channel torsion-beam axle in the rear. That matchup yields a well-controlled ride and trailing throttle/brake behavior that's predictable and relatively benign. Modest body roll and a tendency to understeer a tad when pressed hard into corners notwithstanding, the spirited New Beetle still merits above-average marks in the fun-to-drive department. Its power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering has a lively feel, and healthy 205/55HR16 all-season radials (Goodyear Eagle RS-As on the trio of cars we drove) strike a good balance between grip and ride compliance. The standard four-wheel discs with optional ABS proved eminently capable of halting this 2712-pound Bug without undue drama.
As anyone who's ever followed one up a steep grade knows, Beetles were dog slow. As our Aug. '64 Road Test described, with the '64 Bug's meager 1.2-liter/40-horsepower air-cooled four, 0-60 mph took a snail-like 29.5 seconds. Obviously today's Beetle needs to be much quicker.
At its introduction, the New Beetle will offer a choice of two four-cylinder SOHC engines: VW's 2.0-liter/115-horsepower gas burner and its 1.9-liter/90-horse TDI turbodiesel. Either will be linkable to a five-speed manual transmission or optional four-speed automatic, although the cars we drove were all manuals. While there is a certain quirky charm to the force-fed oil-burner, we were far more impressed with the peppier gas motor. About a year from now, a feisty sport variant will join the lineup. Fitted with a 1.8-liter 150-horsepower turbocharged DOHC four, tauter suspension (and the option for larger 17-inch wheels and tires), as well as a roof-mounted spoiler that deploys at speed a la Porsche 911. Its quicker reflexes and sweeter power curve made this neo-Super Beetle by far our overall favorite. VW execs also strongly hinted that both a Tiptronic transmission and an all-wheel-drive Syncro model will be available within two years. Surprisingly, the VW execs we questioned were far less committal when it came to the subject of a convertible.
The sole world source point for the New Beetle will be VW's modern plant in Puebla, Mexico. When fully ramped up, the automaker expects to produce about 120,000 units per year there, roughly half of them destined for the U.S. Pricing will start at $15,200, plus a $500 destination fee. Time will be the ultimate arbiter as to whether America embraces this automotive second coming as enthusiastically as it did the first time around. But our initial encounter with the intriguing New Beetle leads us to believe it will have more than a fighting chance for a long and successful run.
Remember When?Memories are a fleeting thing, as we learned researching this article. Someone born after 1970 might miss the historical significance of the New Beetle entirely, never knowing the era in which the so-ugly-it's-cute VeeDub infested America's cities from Hartford to Haight-Ashbury, and became regarded as the four-wheeled definition of counter-culture. Ban-the-bomb rallies, flower-power love-ins, and purple-hazed Jimi Hendrix concerts were the destinations of thousands of used and abused Beetles during the late '60s, most of them hand-me-down vehicles from other family members who'd moved into mainstream suburbia and the requisite phony-wood-sided station wagon.
Today's youths don't know the sight of tiny Beetles swimming amongst the vast sea of huge American chrome barges that were the norm 30 years ago, and how they looked so cute and helpless as they buzzed along the highway. Dwarfed by virtually everything else alongside, and reduced to crawling speed up any incline steeper than a flattened Dixie cup, the Beetle quickly became the beloved underdog of a generation.
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