VW Redesigning the Beetle? Looks Less Beetle Like
Posted in Random by Dan at 12:06 pm
This post was published 2 years 3 months 13 days ago and its content may not be valid anymore.
The lovable VW Bug way be getting a MAJOR facelift in 2010.
Set to share a platform with the next-generation Rabbit and upcoming Scirocco, the 2010 Beetle will once again be styled in California and engineered in Germany, according to our sources. That, however, is where the similarities will end.
The cutesy bug-eye look, rounded shape, and bulbous roofline are binned in favor of a more aggressive — and more traditional — style with a sportier stance and coupe-style roof as depicted in the drawings.
I thought the whole concept of the Beetle was to mimic the designs from the 60’s. This design looks just like another car.
Look, it’s every other car on the road…
I like it more than the current beetle…pretty neat.
That’s not a beetle. It looks just like any other car. What’s the point without its distinctive look? Why not just call it something else?
Every car gets an update, without having to change the name. I was wondering when they were going to update it. How long can you be retro? Personally, I thought the “original” redesign was lazy. The just modernized the old design and took the interior cues from the other VW and overcharged for nostalgia. Hell, the only thing original on the Latest beetle was the flower holder.
This I would buy.
@websnap – theres actually more cues between old and new.
They should stop “New Beetle” development. If VW moves forward they will have to change the body up. NB sales are down and they keep coming out with bad limited’s to revitalize it. IMO, as a New Beetle driver and long time VW owner it should have been killed off a bit ago. This would aid in the nostalgia aspect.
Anyways, I do like these. I never got around to it but my thoughts were more inline with a SEAT Leon Cupra. The curves are there for the obvious New Beetle comparison but the lines are more SEAT. Even the red rear shot is Posche Boxster.
IT does look like a REAL beetle, small front head, with huge back where the wings are stored
did you guys yank my link out of my comment? Posted in Feb
Why VW?Why?VW’s best bet would be to get the rear engined platform that the had going(here in the USA)for 39 years,modernize it,and use THAT as their base platform.
This totally contradicts Volkwagen. As an avid VW lover, Volkswagen once stated that they would never make major changes to the Beetle. This concept is completely awful. Plus the reality of this concept becoming real is very unlikely.
I can see how this may be frustrating. It bears little vestiges of the legend it is supposed to pay homage. But if that is the issue, then the so called “New Beetle” is not a true Beetle either.
A “Beetle” was not a shape, a head light fixture, nor is it a flower holder (which was a traditional addition to beetles in the 60s. That’s why New Beetles have them). The Beetle was a design. The Volkswagen Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche to be specifically the way it was.
You wouldn’t agree with me if I said a Nissan Sentra was the same thing as a Nissan Maxima would you? why not? They look almost exactly the same. How about Lincoln Town Cars and Cadillac Sevilles. Some models are nearly indistinguishable. What’s the difference then? Or how about Ford Mustangs and Ford Focus cars? They don’t look alike but they are all Ford.
The difference is design. It’s what’s under the hood and what’s in the cab. The Beetle has an engine in the rear, it has vinyl or cloth interior, it is extremely light, it has some sort of manual transmission (some Beetles had an automatic stick.), it has torsion bars for suspension, it’s air-cooled, and the list goes on. The engine itself is specially designed for the Beetle. The concept of the Beetle was “the people’s car”; Porsche spent many years designing his dream (the Beetle). It had to be cheap, have great miles per gallon, be tough as nails, and more. It is a model as specific and intentional as a GTO.
New Beetles are were first designed in the late 90s by a company that had no affiliation with Volkswagen and they are built upon the basic idea of the Golf of the time. In other words, a New Beetle is nothing more than a strangely shaped Golf.
If “looks” make the car, then this new path for Volkswagen is profane. If there is anything more to a car, then the true Beetle has been dead for years.