Should the Volkswagen Beetle Come Back or Remain Dead?
Autoblog reports via Autocar that no one should expect the Volkswagen Beetle (or Scirocco) to ever return.
Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer didn't 100 percent rule it out, but it's unlikely.
The Beetle, of course, was popular in both its original guise and in the resurrected version that used a retro design. It's not hard to imagine a future in which VW once again brings it back, maybe with an EV powertrain. That said, it appears that any such thought will have to remain in your imagination.
But should the car come back? Would another Beetle give the brand a boost or would it fall flat?
Sound off below.
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Make it the circular golf cart for the 21st centry.
As it applies to the Camaro, Mustang and Challenger, as it applies to the Mini, as it would apply to the Fiat 500 if it'd ever actually sold well, VW is learning that coming up with the second act after "retro" isn't easy.
If they're going back to the retro well, make it smaller and fold the corners sharp like a 70s Rabbit. There just doesn't seem to be much to be gained by moving one deck chair over and going with a Fastback or Squareback instead of the Beetle.
But I also think just out of sheer "go where the others aren't" motivation, if they could engineer a retro Karmann Ghia on that platform they would have an attention-getter on their hands. And a current-day electric would be quicker than how any Karmann Ghia left the factory back in the day.
All this talk of dead beetles. Yoko will be sad.
Having had fun with a 1978 Beetle convertible once, I got serious about considering a New Beetle convertible once I found out that our local dealer was getting their final allotment. However, the test drive was a disappointment considering the price of the car. My then-7-year-old EOS was faster, more precise, and had more usable room. If the NB had even a DSG, it would have made a difference. In the end, I just sadly waved goodbye when the last couple of them disappeared off the lot as they were sold.
The classic Beetle and New Beetle are gone, and should probably stay that way.