The Beetle is back, again
BUGS FIXED The Octavia is under its hood, and the Jetta is its platform. With paddle-shifters and an automatic transmission, there is little to not love about this car
The brief for the Volkswagen Beetle was simple. It was made to be an economical car for the masses that could seat four people and do roughly 100kph. The end result, became one of the most iconic cars in the world.
So deeply ingrained in pop culture is the Volkswagen Beetle that anyone, young or old, could pick it out in traffic with just a glance. That is as true for the new car, which recently hit our roads, as it is for the original classic. But does the Beetle have what it takes to succeed where its predecessor failed and make its name a hit in India?
The last Beetle – called the New Beetle – didn’t find a lot of takers here in India, and its cutesy looks were one of the reasons — apart from the price. The latest iteration of the car has done away with the effeminate, rounded look of its predecessors, and the ‘New’ from its name.
It now sports a longer bonnet, a wide, chiselled air dam and a sharper bumper. The roof is flatter, and at the rear, there’s a more upright tailgate. The cute blob-like tail-lamps have made way for wider horizontal units, however up front, the signature round headlamps remain, which now are ringed with crescent-shaped LED inserts that bring the design up to date.
It’s still far from a macho car, though, but at least it’s a bit easier to accept, while preserving its iconic shape.
Under the Beetle skin, the car actually has the underpinnings of the Jetta and its solid build.
The car is available in only one variant, and on the inside, there are some very obvious retro touches, particularly the upright, body-coloured dashboard and a nice round, hooded instrument cluster and funky looking door handles. The trouble begins where the ‘retro’ ends, as the rest of the cabin borrows quite obviously from the VW family parts bin.
The car comes with a healthy amount of equipment, including front and rear parking sensors, leather upholstery, keyless entry and start, dual-zone climate control, and engine stop-start, but electric seats and a rearview camera would be welcome, even if on the options list.
The new touchscreen, which is VW’s latest unit, functions especially well. It is crisp and smooth, and though it doesn’t have its own sat-nav, it does come with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which let you mirror your phone’s maps app.
Visibility all round is very good, and it needs to be, because the Beetle is deceptively wide, and the new shape makes the car a bit more practical (read long) as well. There’s a large boot and loads of leg room both front and aft, but headroom is a bit tight at the rear. Remember, there are two bucket seats at the back, so if you need a five-seater, you’ll definitely have to look elsewhere.
The Beetle is powered by a turbocharged 1.4-litre TSI petrol motor, but it’s not the 121bhp version used in the Jetta, but the far more potent 148bhp one in the Skoda Octavia. But, unlike the Octavia, which gets only a six-speed manual transmission with this engine, the Beetle uses a seven-speed DSG dualclutch automatic with paddle shifters. It is a flexible powertrain that can be either smooth and relaxed or highly strung, depending on how hard you push it. Cruising at expressway speeds, it revs around 2,000rpm in top gear, while at lower speeds, the gearbox shuffles through its ratios imperceptibly. Flat out, it feels quick enough from behind the wheel for most intents and purposes, though the specs say it takes 9.2 seconds to hit 100kph from a standing start. Owners will also appreciate the car’s unflap- pable dynamics. It feels poised and planted on the road at any speed. And apart from a slight clunkiness through sharp-edged bumps, much like the Jetta, the ride quality is superb over most surfaces. The handling, though not as sharp and entertaining as a Mini Cooper, for instance, is pretty good, too. You’ll feel a fair bit of body-roll through corners, but the steering and suspension are very competent at their jobs and the car is overall rather playful. All things considered, this new Beetle is a lot more exciting to drive than the previous-generation, which was dull and uninvolving.
At ` 29.4 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), the new model is priced on the higher side of the luxury hatchback segment, something that proved to be the previous car’s Achilles heel. At this pricepoint, rivals include the Mini Cooper, Mercedes-Benz A-class and B-class, BMW 1-series and Volvo V40. On one hand, you might feel the VW badge isn’t strong enough to make the cut it this company, but on the other, the Beetle is a style icon that vies with the Mini. Whether or not you still think it is effeminate may depend on whether it drives past you while you’ve got the throttle floored, but it’s clear that the latest Beetle is more spacious, practical, comfortable, better equipped and nicer to drive than its predecessor. Beetlemania is back, and better than ever before.