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The New, New VW Beetle

Volkswagen's New Beetle never could have equaled the sales performance of its predecessor - the original Beetle sold 21.5 million ...

The New, New VW Beetle

Posted on 16 February 2010 by Scott

Volkswagen’s New Beetle never could have equaled the sales performance of its predecessor – the original Beetle sold 21.5 million units over fifty-eight years – but, in modern terms at least, its eleven-year run has been a long one. First introduced in 1998, the New Beetle initially met with great fanfare (in the United States, if not in Germany), but by 2009, sales dropped to an all-time low of fewer than 15 000 units in the U.S. So the marketing strategists have decided to pull the plug.

The car’s sales, however, were still good enough to earn an encore. The new New Beetle is due to appear in late 2011 and will, like its predecessor, be built in Puebla, Mexico. It will adopt suspension components from the last-generation Golf. U.S. buyers will choose from three engines: a 2,5-litre five-cylinder (125 kW), a 2,0-litre turbo unit (147 kW), and a 2,0-litre turbo-diesel (103 kW). Transmission choices will include manuals and dual-clutch automatics with up to seven speeds.

The new version grows by 89 mm in length and sports a flatter roofline, a more upright windshield, a wider track, and a reduced front overhang. The extended rear end accommodates a larger cargo area, and the roomier passenger compartment offers more headroom. The overall shape is reminiscent of the Ragster concept from the 2005 Detroit auto show. The cabriolet retains the old-fashioned stacked roof (when lowered). A speedster spin-off is under consideration for the midcycle update.

Things get more interesting when we look further ahead to the third-generation car due around 2017. That version could see the Bug return to its boxer-engine roots, given some cooperation from Porsche. Porsche has proposed a new horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine for use in its upcoming entry-level model and as a base engine in the Boxster/Cayman. Four years ago, when VW chief Martin Winterkorn approached Porsche’s then-CEO Wendelin Wiedeking seeking to use that boxer engine for a sporty variant of the New Beetle, Wiedeking refused. Just recently, though, Winterkorn again went to Zuffenhausen, obviously in a much stronger position now that the VW Group controls Porsche. If Winterkorn gets the small boxer engine this time, it would become the mainstay powerplant for the third-generation car, which would switch to a rear-wheel-drive, and possibly even a mid-engine layout.