It had to happen. Eventually the Volkswagen New Beetle would get redesigned and run headlong into a naming paradox. Would it be called the New New Beetle, the New Beetle Reloaded or, following a trail blazed by VW in the '70s, the New Super Beetle?
Thankfully, the answers are no, no and no. The new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle and Beetle 2.0T Turbo are here today and they're known simply as "The Beetle" once more.
When it came out in 1998, the retro-themed New Beetle was a breakthrough. No one had actually put a full-blown retro remake into production before, but the New Beetle's initial success encouraged many others to follow VW's lead. Now everyone seems to have an opinion on the best way to do it.
The prevailing wisdom favors a bit more authenticity and/or toughness. VW would have to do more than merely change the name to extricate the New Beetle and its exaggerated bubble styling from the cuteness corner it had painted itself into. It worked for awhile, but 13 years is a long time without a makeover.
Classic Rewind
photo : 2012 Volskwagen Beetle
But how do you remake a remake? Volkswagen's design team went back to the original VW Bug source material and took another crack at it.
Gone is the Astrodome roof line. Gone is the push-me pull-you front-to-rear symmetry. Gone is the arcing windshield covering a dash so broad you could play foosball on it.
In its place stands a profile much closer to that of the original. The roof is flatter on top, with a peak that's shifted rearward to improve the headroom for rear-seat passengers. Indeed our 6-foot 2-inch test pilot actually fits in the backseat now without need to cant his cranium like a confused collie. Rear hatch space has been expanded to 15.4 cubic feet, a 28 percent increase.
The Beetle's windshield now looks like a Beetle's windshield, in that it stands a bit more erect, with a straighter A-pillar. On the road, cornering visibility past that new pillar is vastly improved and there are far fewer dash-top reflections staring back at us in the windscreen.
But it's not all just roof line and windshield. In a deliberate effort to make it tougher and less cutesy, VW's design haus also gave this newer Beetle a healthy dose of the longer (7.3 inches), lower (0.5 inch), wider (3.3 inches) treatment. Das ist der ticket.
Base of Operations
It's much more than just a visual win, as that extra body width translates into just over 2 inches of extra width at the tire contact patches, enough to exceed the track width of its GTI cousin by some 1.3 inches. The 2012 Volkswagen Beetle's extra length pushes its wheelbase out to a more stable 99.9 inches, 1.1 more than before.
In the twisties our boosted Bug hustles through corners with a flatter and more secure disposition despite a suspension that still feels nicely compliant. Through it all the steering feels solid and builds effort properly through the bends. The extra track width no doubt helps, but our Beetle Turbo also rides on the same sort of multilink rear suspension found underneath the rear of a VW GTI instead of the New Beetle's twist beam.
We sampled both grades of Turbo suspension: a standard setup that rides on 235/45R18 tires and a sport suspension with revised spring and damper settings and 235/40R19 rubber that's a no-cost option. At the end of the day we see no reason to steer clear of the sport suspension; it comes nowhere close to being too stiff or too brittle.
Then again, the roads here north of Berlin tend toward smooth, and these are sticky Continental ContiSport Contact 3 summer tires. Back home we'll be fed a strict diet of all-season rubber. So far so good, but the true test will have to wait until we wrestle one of these on our home turf.
And we can't say if any of the above will apply to the regular Beetle with the 2.5-liter inline-5 engine. None were available to drive, which is a shame because non-turbo Beetles will not get the multilink rear suspension. Instead they'll soldier on with a twist-beam rear axle, albeit the freshly reworked one from the 2011 Jetta.
About Those Engines
As alluded to above, two engines are offered in the 2012 Beetle. Both are familiar, but neither sat in the 2010 New Beetle in their current form.
The 2012 Volkswagen Beetle's base engine is still a 2.5-liter five-cylinder, but this is the revised unit found in the VW Golf lineup. The entry-level Bug now enjoys 170 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque, 20 hp and 7 more lb-ft of torque more than before. The transmission choices remain the same: five-speed manual or six-speed automatic.
The Beetle 2.0T Turbo is propelled by the same direct-injected turbo four-banger found in the GTI, which means the same 200 hp and 207 lb-ft of torque (at just 1,700 rpm!) are on tap. It's backed by either a six-speed manual or, in the case of our test car, VW's six-speed DSG automated manual transmission.
Our blown Bug scoots along nicely, pulling strongly from corner to corner and even boiling the tires a bit when goosing it from rest. Available paddle shifters give us a third option besides Drive and Sport modes. Things could get interesting at our test track because at 3,089 pounds, this 2012 Beetle weighs about 70 pounds less than an equivalent GTI.
Then again, maybe not. Despite less bulk and the same power, Beetle Turbo 0-60 performance is rumored to trail behind the GTI by a tenth of a second. Aerodynamic drag seems to be the villain, and our calculator implies the Beetle will generate 20 percent more of it thanks to a 0.37 drag coefficient and the extra height and width. Boxy ain't necessarily bad, it seems, as a VW GTI and its 0.32 Cd is actually slicker.
Insider Edition
It always seemed to us the New Beetle abandoned the retro theme on the inside, opting for merely modern, quirky and round instead. For some reason it sprouted a flower vase, otherwise known as Y-chromosome repellent.
The 2012 Beetle design team took full advantage, and so the newest Bug's dash is dominated by a full-width body-color panel that echoes the painted steel dashboard of old. On its right-hand side there's a retro kaeferfach "Beetle bin" glovebox straight out of the '60s, with the same sort of flip-latch. A second traditional glovebox sits lower down by the knees.
Smack in the middle they've integrated something the New Beetle never had — a navigation system. It's available with the Sunroof, Sound and Navigation package. The "Sound" part refers to a Fender-tuned stereo with 400 watts, eight loudspeakers and a subwoofer.
You don't have to delve this far into the options list to get Bluetooth and a USB/iPod media interface because these will be standard on all Beetles except the Base, a five-speed manual loss-leader variant you'll likely never see apart from newspaper ads touting a price of $18,995.
As for the flower vase, it's history. Sorry, ladies.
Bottom Lines
A 2012 Beetle Turbo starts at $23,395 with a six-speed manual. Add another $1,100 for the DSG gearbox. For the first few weeks you'll have to, in fact, because manuals won't arrive at dealers until November.
The Sunroof and Sound package costs another $3,000 and brings in push-button start and a leather-wrapped multifunction steering wheel with shift paddles along with the implied tilt-and-slide glass roof and Fender audio. A further $1,600 adds in the navigation system and leather seat, door and dash trim.
Apart from the aforementioned base model, the Beetle 2.5 with a five-speed is the more likely non-turbo starting point at $19,765, with a six-speed automatic once again setting you back another $1,100. The Sunroof package costs another $2,500 and you'll pay another $1,800 for 18-inch wheels, nav and Fender sound.
The addition of the Turbo model moves the top half of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle lineup up to the GTI, which gives enthusiasts somewhere to go if they want to drive a more stylish statement car instead of a box. One wonders where the GTI will go from here.
A Well-Executed Redesign
Turbo aside, the entire VW Beetle lineup benefits from the basic philosophy changes wrought by the redesign. More interior space, more equipment and a stable platform is never a bad thing. In the process the cuteness factor has been greatly dialed down, replaced instead with a more authentic throwback interpretation and a bit more attitude.
New Coke only lasted a few stockholders meetings before it got the boot, but the New Beetle lingered for 13 years. It just sounds and feels right to say Volkswagen Beetle and VW Beetle once again, doesn't it? Good thing they didn't call it the Beetle Classic.
By Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing
Edmunds
