I didn't get to drive the new Volkswagen Beetle I would have liked to when I was in Berlin at the recent media launch, writes Brian Byrne. A 200hp variant with a 7-speed DSG autobox is all very well, but it isn't what the Beetle means in Ireland.
And that last is why the outgoing version never sold in serious numbers here. Even though the generations who experienced the original are now in the grey part of their lives, there's a strong folk memory of what was once the only Volkswagen—a relatively cheap, reliable personal car. A family car, even if it was only a 2-door and a squeeze for the three children in the back.When the New Beetle I came along, it was aimed at a different target. The fashionista retros. Chic nostalgics. Those who could afford style above practicality, and usually singles. Mostly women, because the prettified New Beetle was unashamedly feminine.
They have shifted gears with New Beetle II, coming to Ireland in January. At the launch presentations the Volkswageners seemed to dwell much on two aspects of the new car. That it was 'masculine', and its Fender sound system, the first time that audio company has teamed specifically with a car. Of course, Fender is absolutely masculine too, its electric guitars the symbolic phallic of rock, while it has always been mostly men who vie for the most Wattful home sound systems to crow about.
The shape of the latest Beetle is also aimed to attract men. With lines that are more tuned to the very first one, there's a stronger coupe look, very 40s. But the haunchy wheel cases are thoroughly modern, very macho. And there's more grunt about the front, an incorporation of the somewhat stern-lipped current VW 'face'. There is, though, enough of the 'Herbie' legacy left to prompt a smile or two—an integral rear spolier under the back window of some versions is enough OTT to do it.
The new car is longer, and there's enough room now in the rear for a pair of extra adults not to feel compromised. And there's also adequate boot space to accommodate reasonable luggage for four. So it no longer needs to be just a weekend car for a couple of singles heading out of town.
The interior mixes modern instruments and materials with tilts towards the past. Some of them are kitsch—the original-position glovebox on the passenger side of the dash opens to a volume that would quickly fill with just pencils (there's another, more modern and spacious one, underneath). It's nice to see that they haven't bothered with a new version of the hippies' flower vase in New Beetle II.
As I mentioned, they had us in the highest specced cars for the launch drive. On what used to be East German roads, some of which are close enough to the state that you wouldn't have noticed in a soggy Trabant, the big wheels and wide tyres didn't do the car any favours in ride terms. But the biggest markets for modern Beetle are the US and Japan, and the car is built in Mexico for all markets, so preview models will reflect these things.
For the Irish launch there will be two petrol engines, 1.2 with 105hp and 1.4 with 160hp. Diesels won't be available until sometime before the middle of 2012, but that might not be a difficulty, because the smaller petrol engine is comfortably in Band B, and therefore quite saleable.
The introductory drive showed a car that should be comfortable, and generally practical. It won't reach Golf driving dynamics, but that's not its market aim (and all the more reason why a GTI-like 200hp one is superfluous).
All in all, a package that is likely to attract a significantly wider range of buyers than the outgoing car. Especially if the pricing is right.
In Germany it starts off at an achievable €16,800. There's no price information for Ireland yet, but I do know the strategy is being revised from the current range to make it a more affordable proposition.
So the one I really wanted to drive was that 1.2 petrol with a 5-speed manual in the car's most basic trim. It will be as close to the original which Ireland took to its heart back in 1950, when this country became the first outside Germany to assemble the 'people's car'. We bought around 100,000 of them before the model was discontinued 30 years later.
Against that, the current expectation that they might sell 300 in the first full year here seems rather underwhelming.
