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back to article Volkswagen Beetle car review

Retro car designs fall into one of two categories. The Good like the Fiat 500 and the Bad like the 1998 VW Beetle and BMW’s huge Mini. The 1998 Beetle was a particularly bad example with underpinnings that represented a nadir of VW engineering and a body that betrayed its lazy California-penned origins. It was an insult to …

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  1. Wize

    Don't like

    They like to try and sell cars based on the original and popular originals (Mini, VW Beetle , etc) by using their names. They only have a passing resemblance to them, especially the new mini that looks like its eaten a few old Minis in its time.

    Part of me wants them to re-do the VW Camper van. Would love to see new versions of the Split Screen model with its iconic lines, but worried what kind of nightmare it would look like. Probably a number 27 bus with a bad two tone paint job going by what they do with everything else.

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    1. Richard 116
      Reply Icon

      Re: Don't like

      Your wish is my command... http://www.caranddriver.com/features/2014-volkswagen-microbus-feature

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      1. Wize
        Reply Icon

        Re: Don't like

        Nooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

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  2. Jemma

    No, no and again no

    Firstly you forgot to mention the man behind the Beetle in the first place - chap called Adolf if I recall. Had a penchant for odd moustaches and his own neice (amongst his more likeable attributes).

    As to Porsche 'designing' the original he didnt. He nicked the T97 from Ledwinka and Tatra, changed a few angles and phoned it in from a Nuremburg beerhall. VW were sued over that post war and Hitler personally banned the production of the T97. The T87, the 97s bigger brother earned itself a place in history when an official order went out banning the SS from using it on the basis that it killed more SS officers than the entire czech resistance (V8 in the boot and crossply tires are a baaaad combination, ask a 911 owner).

    If you are going to review what amounts to little less than a cynical marketing exercise at least get the story right. Saying Porsche designed the original beetle is like giving John Cooper the credit for the original Mini.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No, no and again no

      Hmmm, so which parts are interchangeable between a Beetle and a T97? The prototype Beetles weighed about 650 kg, whereas the T97 was more than 1100 kg - doesn't sound like quite the same car to me?

      Anyway, it's not Hitler you want to thank for the Beetle, it's Major Ivan Hirst of the REME. Without the British Army getting the factory up and running after the war, the Porsche Typ 60 would have been a forgotten pre-war curiosity.

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      1. Git
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        Re: No, no and again no

        Yes. I met him when I was a young lad, and he had an NSU Ro80 at the time. Lovely old chap, still very proper and clearly an educated and experienced man. He lived near Huddersfield, and I was taken to meet him when visiting relatives in the area. His contribution to the German car industry is overlooked by many, but was clearly very influential.

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      2. Jemma
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        Re: No, no and again no

        The concept was the same down to the air cooled engine, location & shape. Ledwinka successfully maintained with good reason it was a copy since its documented that porsche was looking over his shoulder at the blueprints. As to the british soldier you mention, your dead right, but my point still stands - if Adolf didn't commission it he wouldnt have been able to rescue it. That story is trotted out every time to make vws pink and snugly and kiddie friendly - just like bayer and basf strangely dont call themselves IG Farben these days. Odd how nasa are really quiet bout a chap called von braun and his brother, you know the ones, the high ranking SS too. Whitewashing the truth, like that, is dangerous because in time the reality is lost and then its time for the next koom valley spectacular.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Anonymous Coward

          Re: No, no and again no

          Air-cooled engines, rear engines and funny-shaped cars were hardly unique to Tatra in those days - have a look at a Mercedes-Benz 170H for instance, or the Standard Superior (another car that the Beetle was allegedly a straight copy of). And the quotation you refer to was from Porsche himself - "Well, sometimes I looked over his shoulder and sometimes he looked over mine". Not so much industrial espionage, as two engineers in the same business sharing ideas, perhaps?

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  3. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

    Eep

    That is quite hideous

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  4. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    Has anyone owned a New Beetle for more than 2-3 years?

    Everyone I know that bought one, moved on to another car fairly quickly.

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  5. Ivan Headache
    Unhappy

    Admittedly

    The earlier version of the "New" beetles was a woman's car - but it looked 10 times better than this one.

    This one looks like an Audi TT that's been inflated a bit.

    I hate retro-look cars, particularly the Mini and that horrible Chrysler thing (but not the Fiat 500).

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  6. Bob Fish

    So....

    ... you want a more expensive, less practical, less spacious Golf? With 1 fewer seats?

    Congratulations! It's yours!

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  7. Chris 228

    Hardly

    The '98 New Beeetle was an excellent update on the original Beetle and sold well as a result. The latest rendition roughly based on some early drawings of the original Beetle that Ferdinand Porsche wisely chose to abandon, is FUGLY and not selling well at all as a result. The latest model was some pipedream of a marketing group who thought the New Beetle was too feminine so the current model is suppose to be more masculine. People voting with their wallet have decided the current model sucks.

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  8. verity33
    Happy

    Ugly bonnet

    One of the best things about the original VW Beetle's looks was its smiley face. The new ones don't look right without it.

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