Let's face it. Volkswagen's new Beetle flopped on its face in our market. While it sold over a million copies elsewhere in the world, in South Africa it moved less numbers in ten years than the same brand turns over in Polos every month.
Blame its overtly retro style. Blame its hefty pricetag. Blame the fact that it was based on the Golf 4 - a car that itself hardly won the hearts of South Africans. At least not in the same way that the Golf 5 and 6 have.
Also, given its extra long lifespan of almost 13 years, it's been available right through the past three Golf generations, making its outdated-ness ever more obvious.
Whatever the problem, it's not performed well in terms of popularity. But now take a look at this.
The new, new Beetle. Or, to be technically correct, the third-generation Beetle.
It's a similar formula on the surface, with another retro interpretation of arguably the most famous car in the world - the original 1950s Beetle. But this time VW insists its silhouette is more accurate in profile and is hoping that the more masculine rearmost-half won't send manly men running for their chewing tobacco and shifting spanners.
There's a cool Porsche-esque, shrunken whale-tail spoiler on the boot lid and wheel size options go all the way up to mannish 19 inches. The car's also more steeply raked this time, and rake is always good for macho-ness, but I doubt if Arnie is considering trading in his Humvee on one. The new design is indeed a little less girly than before, but I'd still describe it as just cute.
Underneath the skin is a whole lot of Golf 6 and GTI componentry, so we know the latest Beetle is quite advanced mechanically. It feels quite current GTI-like on the road too as evidenced at its international launch held in Germany last week, but Beetle specific springs, swaybars and mounting bushes give it a slightly softer feel.
The launch test cars were impressive, as they were bound to be, because VW only offered us top 147kW 2-litre turbo models with DSG gearboxes to drive. And strangely this particular model is only headed to SA in 2013. Probably with at least 155kW by then.
So far VWSA can only confirm we'll get the new Beetle with a 77kW/175Nm 1.2-litre turbo petrol with a 6-speed manual gearbox, and a 118kW/240Nm 1.4-litre twincharged petrol with either manual or 7-speed DSG auto 'box. There are diesels available, but for now both 1.6 and 2-litre TDIs are only under consideration for our market.
There are three specification levels, but we'll only get the top Design and Sport models in SA. Separate interior trimmings and wheel sizes differentiate the two.
The new Beetle gets a South African touch with our own Oona Scheepers, who was among the car's designers. Oona specialises in interiors and told me personally that she was sad to the see the demise of the hippie inspired flower vase that girly types loved about the previous Beetle. It's all part of the butch-ification I suppose.
Instead the new version gets retro items like a colour-coded dashboard fascia, a second upward hinged “Beetle box” glove compartment and B-pillar mounted leather slings all common to the original Beetle.
The new Beetle can be equipped with VW's usual array of entertainment systems, one of which is a touchscreen navigation unit, which I must say combines nicely in an old-'n-new way with the yesteryear dashboard design. Possibly the most standout feature though is an optional Fender sound system (Fender is a well-known guitar and amplifier maker in the US) with eight speakers that sounds awesome. There's no word yet on how much this will cost in our market, but whatever it is, it will be worth it.
Another really nifty feature is country-specific badging for the bootlid, where Volkswagen will specially make chrome insignias spelling out the Beetle's nickname in each market. For us it would be Volksie, or Volla, but unfortunately the option's not on the cards for SA. Oona says she's working on it.
The new, new Beetle will be launched in SA within the first half of next year.
In Europe it will be priced below similarly specced Golfs, but because we don't get two-door Golfs with these small engines it will be hard to compare prices locally. Pricing's indicated at between R250 000 and R300 000 for now. -Star Motoring