CONFIDENCE PLUMMETS

CONSUMER confidence tumbled to a two-year low during the first week of July, a surveyof households suggests.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index released yesterday fell 4.1 per cent to 96.5 in July, dipping below the 100-point mark that separates optimism from pessimism.

“The fall in sentiment this month is troubling as it comes against what should have been a supportive backdrop for confidence,” Westpac economist Matthew Hassan said. It was the second drop in a row for the monthly measure of consumer sentiment. drive models like the Golf took over. But the Beetle wasn’t dead yet. Production went on in Mexico from 1967 until 2003 — longer than the car had been made in Germany. Nicknamed the “vochito,” the car made itself at home as a rugged, Mexican-made “carro del pueblo”. The New Beetle — a completely retro version build on a modified Golf platform — resurrected some of the old Beetle’s cute, unconventional aura in 1998 under CEO Ferdinand Piech, Ferdinand Porsche’s grandson. In 2012, the Beetle’s design was made a bit sleeker.

The end of the Beetle comes at a turning point for Volkswagen as it rebounds from a scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests. The company is gearing up for mass production of the battery-driven compact ID. 3, a car that the company predicts will have an impact like that of the Beetle and the Golf by bringing electric mobility to a mass market.