Wild Ass Rumor Of The Day: VW up! To Become Baby Beetle?
Motor Trend (MT) is filling-up bandwidth and hyping-up baby boomers with a post on the forthcoming New Beetle Mk II. The bulk of it isn't all that earth-shattering: there will be a new New Beetle. MT reckons it will be based on the next Golf and it should arrive in 2010. There will likely be a hybrid version. Motor Trend says VW should (or could) make the New Beetle a hybrid-only model since "its distinctive style lends it the same kind of instant recognition as the Toyota Prius." Except that the Prius is actually aerodynamic; a far more important feature for efficiency-oriented cars than boomer nostalgiamobiles. But that isn't even MT's wildest bit of speculation. They speculate that VW's forthcoming city car, the up! could be restyled to look like a "Baby Beetle." Hmmm. The VW up! was planned as a rear-engine car, and it will cost enough to place it in the "small-but-premium" category. By giving it a Beetle-inspired shape, VW could use nostalgia to trump the price point. A light, rear-engined baby Beetle would capture more of the original kaeferwagen's appeal than another reskinned Golf. But there's a small problem with the theory. As Mr Berkowitz pointed out, the up! is no la rear-engine, rear-wheel drive car. That doesn't mean a baby Beetle isn't coming. But if it does, it will be just another reskinned FWD VW. Or will it?
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Current owner of a 1.8t VW here, so I'm a fan, but I'm just wondering: What (other than FWD) prevents the Yaris liftback from being the modern Bug? It's light, cheap, simple, reliable, and even a hatchback. Seems like a people's car, by the recipe people are posting here, and it is selling well, but its certainly not a phenomenon. Does it just need to look cooler?
No doubt-there are cars out today that get within the dust cloud of the bugs technical mentality.Toyota certainly offers such vehicles so does Dacia(A Renault derivative-unknown in the US) in Europe.The Nano will be a local fad certainly not being exported to 160 countries. Eventhough the bug was simple it was a complete Automobile that could take a lot of beating.As one journalist put it:"A poor design,perfectly executed".I doubt that anything from China or India would meet the execution factor.
I was in Germany and picked up a car magazine with this car on the cover. What caught my eye was the statement across the cover "At Last! Rear Wheel drive"! I opened the magazine and sure enough, there was a long story about how the 2011 Bug will be rear wheel drive. Now this was about a year ago. I guess the idea died, or was a lie.